False Echoes
by Golden-Sama
Summary: [Complete] Romantic Getaways, Christmas, Flirting Fun, An Undead Zombie from New Orleans, Jack the Ripper, Sword Fights, Action, Romance, Drama and Mystery! [RobinxMichael], [SakakixDoujima], [AmonxKarasuma]
1. Vacation Time

**Witch Hunter Robin  
False Echoes  
  
Chapter I – Vacation Time**

**  
  
Rated**: PG-13 for Violence, Profanity, and Mature Content**  
  
Summary**: Chap 1 UP! Romantic Getaways, Christmas, Flirting Fun, Sakaki's Dad, Heart filled moments, Jack the Ripper, odd dates, tons of romance, surprises and thrills, and did I mention it's the sequel to _Fire and Rain_? RobixMike, SakaxDouji, and MihoxAmon!   
**  
Disclaimer**: You know by now I don't own **Witch Hunter Robin®** which belongs to **Sunrise® **and **Sci-Fi® Channel**. If I owned the show Robin would have vanished with Michael at the end.  
  
Nor do I own the song _False Echoes_; I just borrowed its title.  
  
Storyline and Plot are mine.

**  
Author Notes**:

**----**

_Three hundred and twenty years have passed_

_                        Since the Coven sank in the dark_

_A False Truth_

_            A demon long forgotten_

_                        An enemy always remembered_

_ Echoes of the Past_

_                        Will light the path to the Future . . ._

**----**

_Why is it always an abandon warehouse?_

Haruto Sakaki sighed and cussed as he pulled his new motorcycle up outside the now closed-down TV-factory on the edge of Tokyo's waterfront shores. There was always an abandon warehouse in his job, it was all too cliché but he had grown used to it. It was snowing now, and the white flakes covered him.

"Move in on my signal." Amon's cold voice cut through Sakaki's thoughts.

Sakaki reached down into his belt and pulled the Orbo gun up, holding it out in front of his face. It was bitter cold and his shoulders were shaking a bit from the icy nip in the wind. He sighed as he waited for Amon's signal to enter the old warehouse from behind, which was his job tonight. He watched as he breathed and his breath turned into a cloud of smoky white fog in front of him.

_Damn I hate winter._

Suddenly a small burst of fire appeared at his feet, the combination of yellow and orange flames burning away at the snow-covered ground. The bright yellow tongues of the flames shot up in the air, licking away the chill that had settled over Sakaki. He grinned and turned behind him where Robin was getting off her vespa.

"Thanks." He said quietly as she walked up to stand next to him. Robin only smiled from behind her snow-damped blonde hair.

"Move out." Amon's voice burnt through their headsets and Sakaki instantly ran forward towards the old warehouse. The door was high and made of steel but Robin only threw her head to the left, narrowing her eyes and suddenly a person-sized door was cut in the steel by the same bright yellow flames that had warmed Sakaki moment ago.

Sakaki ran through the still burning hole in the wall past the melting steel and down into the darkness. The Witch, Tadku Metamora, had shut off all of the lights, but that didn't matter. Sakaki reached his left hand into his jacket as he pressed his back into a large crate and pulled out a pair of odd, green goggles. He slipped them around his head and soon was glancing through the darkness in Night Vision.

Robin had appeared and was now leaning against the huge crate next to him, fumbling wit her own night vision goggles. She had never used them before, but now they were needed for the job. Sakaki didn't have time to help her, though; instead he cast his now green-glowing eyes around the room for any indication of the witch.

He spotted a shape moving in the far left of the warehouse but he quickly realized it was only Miss. Karasuma who was casting her own green-glowing eyes through the room. The Night Vision goggles looked like nothing more than cheep pool goggles, but they turned the eyes green. An invention of the Factory.

"Bastards!"

Sakaki was used to hearing this screamed at him and instantly hit the dirt as a blast of air moving magically fast smashed into the ground behind him, exploding a huge hole into it. Sakaki rolled over onto his back and spotted the Witch, who was perched atop a large pile of crates. He pulled the trigger of his Orbo gun quickly and watched as two of the eerie green glowing bullets flew into Tadku's chest, a third and fourth that were fired by Amon hit his back and the Witch fell from the top of the crate pile and smashed down on the cold floor.

"Get him?" Michael the hacker asked in a bored voice over the headsets.  
  
"Yeah." Sakaki said back as he climbed to his feet.

But Sakaki was wrong. Tadku was stirring on the ground, and suddenly he was on his feet once again. Sakaki blinked in surprised and went for his Orbo gun once more but it wasn't fast enough. A jet of air shot and smashed Sakaki in his chest, sending him flying backward into the wall. Obviously the Witch's craft wasn't as strong as it once was, but considering he had been shot with Orbo four times, he shouldn't even be awake.

Robin was confused but she knew she could ask questions later. She jumped up to her feet and narrowed her eyes, suddenly to her surprise a blast of fire at least three times bigger than she had tried to make appeared burning over the Witch. Tadku screamed for the briefest of seconds before his body turned into dust. The flames were still burning the crates around them and Robin stared out in horror.

**----**

"Unacceptable!"

The following morning, the crew of the STN-Japan was sitting sadly in the computer room. Michael was typing away at his usual spot, but his eyes kept flashing to the fifteen-year-old blonde girl at his side. Robin was staring intently at her feet, as Kosaka yelled at her.

Sakaki was lounging on a chair beside Robin, his head tilted back fixed at the ceiling as he watched a small fly crawl across one of the white tiles that made up their roof. Karasuma was on Michael's other side, she sat backwards in a chair with her chin lying on the back rest, looking more like a bored teenager than her usual self.

Amon was in Zaizen's office, talking to the _real_ boss.

"We are a non-kill Witch Hunting organization, don't you understand that Robin? Honestly I think all you young people just think rules are make-believe."  
  
"What's make-believe? You know, beside your hair."

Kosaka, who was purple in the face and had a huge, ugly vain throbbing on his forehead, spun around in a second as Yurika Doujima climbed off the elevator with a sleepy yawn. In a second Doujima gave a grunt and realized Kosaka was already in a bad mood.

"Miss. Doujima, I see you've decided to grace us with your presence again. If only you had done the same last night when we had a hunt!"

Doujima walked right past the yelling chief and went to sit down next to Sakaki, ignoring his angry yells and glances completely as she whispered and asked what happened to get him so upset.

"Chief." Robin said in a timid voice, still not looking up. "The Orbo wasn't working."  
  
Kosaka narrowed his already beady eyes. "Ah yes, so you've said, but luckily for _you_, the body and any Orbo inside it was _burnt to ash_ so we'll never know will we?"  
  
"Come off it." Sakaki snapped. "Look Robin in the eyes and then tell me you think she's lying."

Kosaka rounded on Sakaki. "What I do is none of your concern, you had best just hope I don't suspend you for screwing up so badly last night Haruto, because it was –"  
  
"That's enough."

Kosaka's voice died instantly as the bold sound of Zaizen speaking filled the room. All eyes instantly went behind Kosaka to where Zaizen and Amon stood at the bottom of the stairs. Amon wore his usual, expressionless dark gaze, but Zaizen looked angry and worried at the same time.  
  
"Ah, Mr. Zaizen I was just –"  
  
"Reprimanding them." Zaizen said knowingly. "I could hear you from upstairs."

Kosaka flushed.

"I've had a talk with Amon and with my scientist at the Factory, and it seams the Orbo used in last night's hunt didn't work right. I must go to the factory to check on . . . things. Until further notice Factory agents will handle all hunts until I can get to the bottom of the Orbo issue."

This announcement was a huge surprise to everyone, and everyone in the room turned to stare at Zaizen with gaping, shocked faces. Everyone except Amon.

"We'll have to run some test on the Orbo locker downstairs." Zaizen continued, ignoring their shocked looks. "And since some of these tests are . . . dangerous, the Flat will be closed to all of you. Because it would be too difficult to relay information to all of you while not using the Flat, you'll be on a . . . break from work."

Every face in the room, again except for Amon's, was plastered staring at the Manager so intently it looked as if they were all watching their favorite television shows and couldn't be disturbed. It was the oddest thing they'd ever heard.

Zaizen sighed and then looked over at the calendar on the wall which read "December 20th, 2002". Zaizen pause for a moment as he watched intently and then he came to a conclusion.  
  
"I want you all back here by New Years." Zaizen said in his boldest voice. "Until then the Factory will handle Witch Hunts."

"Wait." Asked Doujima, a smile creeping onto her face. "You mean no work for us until January, sir?"

Zaizen nodded grimly. "You heard me. Now all of you are dismissed, except for you." He said, glancing at Robin. "I want to see you in my office."

Robin glanced over to Michael who gave her a supportive smile. He reached out and took her petite hand in his pale on and gave her a reassuring squeeze before letting go and watching her follow Zaizen up the stairs.

"Wow, we screw up a hunt and we get time off work." Sakaki grinned as walked across the tiled floor to his own desk where he picked up his motorcycle helmet. "We should do this more often."  
  
"Shut up." Kosaka said, but even as he said it he was tying his trench coat in the front and looking for his hat, obviously on his way to Harry's and obviously just as happy about this as the rest of them.

Doujima, who hadn't even taken off her coat yet, smiled broadly and then walked across the room to where Sakaki was gathering his things. "Since we have time off you want to get together tonight?" She whispered quietly.

Instantly Sakaki closed his eyes and allowed a small groan to escape his lips. How could he have forgotten about tonight? Part of him thought of telling the whole story to Doujima then and there, but the rest of him decided against it. He knew she'd understand, but he'd never told anyone.

"Can't." Sakaki said quietly, not looking into her eyes.  
  
Doujima frowned. "Why?"  
  
Sakaki sighed. "Got plans already."  
  
Doujima narrowed her eyes. "With who?"  
  
Sakaki scowled. "What does it matter?"

Doujima scowled back. "Because I asked you."  
  
Sakaki turned away. "It's not your business."  
  
He knew her well enough by now to know that was a huge mistake to say, but it didn't matter. This _wasn't_ her business in the least and he wasn't going to tell her, even if she was his girlfriend of three-months.

"Why not?" Doujima said in a warning voice.

"Because I said so." Sakaki snapped back so coldly that Amon himself would have flinched. Doujima growled but turned away.  
  
"Fine." She said shortly. "Be that way."

And she headed quickly into the elevator. Sakaki cursed quietly to himself as he finishing piling his belongings into his pocket and helmet. Karasuma shook her head and chuckled to herself as she too vanished down the elevator. Sakaki sighed.

"See ya Michael." He called as he himself left for the vacation.

Michael didn't hear him, his eyes were staring fixedly at the stairs that Robin and Zaizen had vanished up. He wasn't the only one, Amon was doing the same, but he wasn't watching Robin, he was watching Zaizen.

**----**

Zaizen's office was unlike the rest of the building in every way. The roof and floor were both black tiled, and his desk was huge. High and made of oak, with a black marble surface. On which sat a computer, a phone, and an odd paper weight filled with Orbo.

Zaizen sits in a chair that is high back and made of leather. A small box of Cuban cigars sits on the desk nearby, and next to it is a silver lighter that was Zaizen's grandfathers and his father's before him. Behind it is a black ashtray made of ebony. Zaizen was currently in the chair, facing out, looking out the huge window that stood on the wall behind his desk.

"Robin, you've been here for about five months, correct?"   
  
His voice asked quietly, breaking the silence.

"Yes sir." Robin answered, looking directly at the back of his chair. Zaizen paused his speaking for a second and away from Robin's eyes he reached his hands out and picked up a cigar and the lighter, lighting it up before returning the lighter to the desk.

"Has Michael told you why he never leaves this building?" Zaizen asked once again, his eyes still staring up at the morning sun through his casement.

Robin shifted uncomfortably. "Yes sir."

Zaizen still did not speak as he sucked the smoke from the end of his cigar. He sat and smoked for a long time, until a great deal of ash formed at the end of his cigar and he reached out to empty it in the black ash trey that sat behind the box of Cubans and the lighter.

"I see."  
  
There was a pause, and then:

"Michael cannot stay in Raven's Flat while my Factory agents conduct their test."  
  
It was the truth. No one in the STN-J besides himself knew what Orbo was made from. If the Orbo was really loosing its power over Witches, than he had to test the Orbo already at Raven's Flat. And to do that . . . he couldn't risk anyone learning what Orbo really was.

"Robin." Zaizen turned around his chair so that he was now staring at her face to face. "I am releasing Michael into your custody. You must keep him with you at all times and watch him. This expires on January 1st of 2003. If either of you are not back here on that date you will both die."

Zaizen spoke these words almost as if he had just announced what was for lunch. Robin tried to hide the smile that was forming at her lips, but she couldn't. The thought of being killed hadn't even affected her, it came with being who she was, but the idea of letting Michael leave, with her, until January was too wonderful for her to hide.

"Do I make myself clear?" Zaizen asked.

"Oh. Yes Sir." Robin said."Then you are dismissed."

**----**

Nagira sat at his desk at his personal law offices with a bored look plastered on his face and a mountain of work piling up on his in tray.

He gave a yawn and kicked backward in his seat, sticking his feet up on the desk and staring up at the ceiling as he light up another cigarette and pressed it thickly between his lips with a second sigh.

The day was slow. No, not really. Truth be told the day was incredibly busy and he had at least seven different clients all of whom needed immediate legal attention. But he was bored. He didn't want to work today. So he didn't.

He was just contemplating going out for something to eat when the phone rang on his desk. He ignored it, deciding to let the redheaded secretary in the front answer it instead. He wasn't in the mood to work today.

But what if it was one of his . . . contacts?

He grabbed the phone on the third ring and brought it up to his face.

"Hello?" He asked quietly.

"Is this Nagira?" The man on the other end of the phone had a distinctly American accent.

"Yeah, what do you want?" Nagira asked as he emptied the end of his cigarette into the ashtray on his desk.

"Mr. Nagira, the STN-J are about to sail through troubled waters. A demon waving a black banner is standing on the horizon and he will kill them all unless the hundred year old debt is paid in full."

Nagira's eyes went wide in a second and he moved so fast into a proper sitting position that he spilled the ashtray over and knocked his cigarette onto the ground.  
  
"Who are you?" Nagira asked, no longer bored but now intently furious at whoever it was who was calling him and interested in what they had to say.

"I, like you, know Amon." The American said on the other end of the phone. "You just keep a eye on the STN-J, because they will die. All of them will die. There is no changing that. Blood for blood. Eye for eye. Tooth for tooth."

"What the hell is this?" Nagira asked, getting angry now.

"Solomon is a bitch who doesn't follow rules." The American said. "Now give Amon that message."

And the American hung up.

**----**

Robin practically ran down the stairs, a huge grin splitting her young face. She knew she should not be happy that the STN-J was having these problems. She knew that if there was something wrong with the Orbo it would mean huge problems for the organization, but still, she couldn't help it.

When she got to the bottom of the stairs she passed Amon, who was still staring up at the path to Zaizen's office, but she made no move to speak to him as she crossed down to where Michael sat."What?" He said looking at her.   
  
"Michael." She said smiling at him, and then she explained it to him. She explained that he too was leaving Raven's Flat until January. Michael listened intently to every word she had to say, but even as she said them Michael didn't believe them. His eyes lit up as she explained it all to him."Are you sure?" He asked quietly. She only smiled, sat down in chair next to him and took his hands in her own, interlocking their fingers as her emerald eyes peered into his sky blue ones.

"I'm sure." She said at length.

Michael, who could hardly believe this, just sat and stared at Robin. He was leaving Raven's Flat for days, with Robin, Robin who he loved and loved him back. It was so amazing how much had changed in the three months since David Rica had evaluated the STN-J.

Four months ago, when Robin was still considered "new" here, the STN-J hunted a Witch called Kita Nobunaga, a leading member of HTH, or "Hunt. The. Hunters" a group of witches who hunted Witch Hunters. Nobunaga had been the worst witch hunted in over two years and Solomon used that as a chance to send Rica.

Jackson David Rica had been the worst thing that ever happened to the STN, and yet somehow at the same time he was also the best thing that happened. His evil, sarcastic smile and hallow, dead eyes behind his dark sunglasses still haunted the STN-J now, three months after Doujima killed him.

_Or did she? The body vanished, and they knew perfectly well normal rules of life and death didn't apply to Rica. _

While his combination of breaking Karasuma's legs, shooting Amon in the neck, luring Robin, Doujima and Sakaki to America and then shooting Sakaki in the chest was horrible, he had done more good than harm. Thanks to Rica's evil Robin and Michael had both sought solace, and found it in one another's arms. Doujima and Sakaki too had gone from flirting, to fighting, to dating thanks to what Rica had done three months ago.   
  
And still Michael had trouble believing that any of this was real. That Robin was really in love with him, that Zaizen really said he could leave the Flat, he had trouble believe it all. It was too perfect to be real. Too good to be true.

If only the hacker had known that soon the "perfect" and the "good" would turn into pure hell on earth. If only he knew that right now events were being set into motion that would change his life forever. But he did not know that.

All he knew right now was how beautiful Robin looked when she smiled.

**----**

Sakaki rode on his motorcycle as the sun fell from the sky, a bouquet of roses in his arms and memories on his mind.

The cold breeze of December air had not stopped nipping at his neck and it only furthered to piss him off. His mood was always a foul one on _this_ day, on December 20th. It always made him mad. But after the fight with Doujima he was only madder than usual.

The road was empty except for a few cars, and he made good time. The roses under his arm were icy cold, but he knew the person they were for wouldn't mind. He knew she never would mind.

Sakaki arrived there at her home, what was now her home anyway, and stepped off the motorcycle. He unclasped the helmet under his chin and put it down on the seat of his bike. He then looked down at the bouquet of roses and a single daisy. It was the same bouquet every year.

With a sigh he stood up and walked over through the damp, snow covered grass. He made no hurry; he knew she'd be there when he got there. How could she not be there? She was here forever, because this is where she had been buried.

Sakaki sighed, reached down, and brushed the snow off the tombstone as he laid the bouquet down on the soft mound of earth like he had done every December 20th for the past nine years.

"Hello, ma'."

**----**


	2. Dreams and Demons

**Witch Hunter Robin  
False Echoes  
  
Chapter II – Dreams and Demons**

**  
  
 Disclaimer**: You know by now I don't own **Witch Hunter Robin®** which belongs to **Sunrise® **and **Sci-Fi® Channel**. If I owned the show Robin would have vanished with Michael at the end.  
  
Nor do I own the song _False Echoes_; I just borrowed its title.  
  
Storyline, Plot, **Kenny Avery© **and the one and only **David Rica©** are mine.

**----**

_Rain fell like sheets of icy death from the dark sky and the lightning clashed overhead, sending a roaring rumble through the background, and covering the sound of Robin's attempts to continue breathing through the blood that oozed from the torn bullet hole under her chin, but to no avail. _

_  
Blood continued to poor from Robin's throat and she gave a raspy, half-breath as she fought to stay awake. Fought to stay alive. She lay on the ground, pooled in her own blood and the icy rain water that now covered the roof. Michael was down on his knees, his hands covered in a mixture of his lover's blood and his own._

_"Damn you!" Michael shouted at the figure in the darkness. The man was huge. Built like a football player, which he had once been. His hair was short and brown and his eyes were dark. The eyes were no longer blue but now glowing with the eerie black light._

_The man smirked and spoke in two separate voices at once. "Blood has been paid Campbell. Now we can both rest at easy."  
  
_

_"Stop it!" Michael cried, a mixture of tears and rain running down his face. "I'm not __Campbell__ dammit!"  
  
_

_"Of course not puppy." David Rica said from where he stood leaning against the wall, next to where Sakaki and Doujima lay lifeless in each other's arms. "But that doesn't matter to him. He's crazier than I am, and that's saying somethin'."  
  
_

_Michael ignored the words of Rica as he looked down at the dying girl in his arms. His dying Robin who he loved more than he had ever loved anyone before. She was almost dead now, almost drained of all life..  
  
And then the debt would be paid._

_"I know its hard puppy." Rica said in a fake-sympathetic tone. "But you know once she dies the rest of your friends can live." He glanced down at Sakaki and Doujima's dead bodies. "Well, all the rest of your friends but those puppies."  
  
"No." Michael cried. "Take me instead. Take me instead damn it."_

_The unknown man with the black eyes shook his head. He spoke once again, in two voices. Two different, but equally evil voices._

_"No __Campbell__. I take Rosalind from you now, as you took her from me one hundred years ago."_

_"SHE IS NOT ROSALIND!" Michael screamed. "SHE'S ROBIN!"_

_"Puppy, why do you even try?" David Rica said from behind as he shook his smug-smiling head. "Why do you even pretend to think she'll live? She is already on her way to hell. Except it. She dies so that many more may live."  
  
"SHE IS NOT GOING TO DIE!" Michael screamed over his shoulder towards Rica. "I WON'T LET HER DIE!"_

_The unknown man shook his head._

_David Rica laughed once again._

_And then Robin Sena died in his arms._

Michael blazed awake, his entire body dripping in cold sweat. His sky blue eyes were out of focus and the horrific images of Robin's death were still blazing in his mind and his breath caught in his throat. Even though it was just a dream it scared him something deeply.

There was a sound of footsteps suddenly and a moment later light filled Michael's eyes as the high lights above him turned on. He blinked a few times as he tried to adjust to the newfound shining luminosity. There was a moment, while his eyes were shut, when he could hear Robin's tiny feet running to the couch where he was lying and when he next opened his eyes the blurry vision of the blonde girl was floating before him.

"Michael." She said quietly, placing a tiny hand on his shoulder.   
  
Michael blinked a few more times as his eyes finally finished the adjustment. He sighed and shook his head. The vision of a dead Robin in his arms, blood flowing over them both was still fresh in his mind.

"Nothing. Just a nightmare." He said in answer to her unasked question.

"You screamed." Robin said quietly.  
  
Michael said nothing; he only shook his head, wanting nothing more than to make the memories of his dream go away from his mind. He did not want to see a dying Robin, or the strange brown haired man, or David Rica ever again. He didn't want to see that rainy rooftop.

He looked up at Robin, who had a worried look on her face. The seventeen-year-old hacker only shook his head one more time. He couldn't look at her beautiful, young face right now. Not while he still saw that same beautiful, young face, only covered in thick red blood every time he closed his eyes.

Michael was shaken from his memories at the touch of Robin's soft lips on his cheek. Her kiss was like silk that made his entire body go numb with a mixture of pleasure and comfort. She had the unnatural ability to calm him down, no matter how horrible things became for him.

"I love you." Michael whispered as he continued to look away from her young face.

Robin smiled.

**----**

Haruto Sakaki had twelve days left until he had to go back to work.

Really it was eleven, seeing as how the current date was 11:58pm, on December 20th, 2002. The seventeen-year-old hunter would have been sleeping by now normally, but not on this day. Not on December 20th. He hadn't slept on this day for nine years.   
  
Sakaki's apartment was small, but it was also the cheapest place he could find that wasn't completely nasty and unbearable. He had a small room that was supposed to be a kitchen, an even smaller bathroom, and then a living and bed room. That was all. But he worked seven days a week and spent most of his time off away from this place, so he didn't really mind.

He had a TV, and a computer and a bed of course, but that was really it. A cheap _George Foreman_ grill that served as his chief source of food was placed on the kitchen counter next to the sink.

Right now however he was lying in bed. The lights were off and he had already stripped down to his boxers and was lying under the blanket, his blue eyes staring fixedly at the digital alarm clock beside his bed. The green letters said 11:59:23 and he watched, counting the milliseconds before he could sleep.  
  
Counting the milliseconds before he'd be past the anniversary of his mother's birthday, and also of the day she had been murdered by his father.

Just as the clock reached 11:59:54 he heard the unmistakable sound of his front door opening, which instantly made him reach his left hand under his pillow where he kept his gun. It wasn't the Orbo gun he used at work; this was just a nine millimeter he'd bought after he was shot by David Rica. Once he knew just how painful being shot was he had wanted a gun for home so he could avoid feeling that pain again when he cornered a burglar unarmed.

Of course the person who appeared at Sakaki's bedroom doorway wasn't a murderer, or serial killer, or rapist or child molester or drug addict or hippie or communist or terrorist or any of the other things that pass through your mind when your house is broken into.

It was worse.

It was Yurika Doujima, and her eyes had a look of burning rage in them that he had seen only once before – the day at the hospital when she'd slapped Rica three months before.

"Yuri-chan, hey." He said meekly. Normally he would have sounded a bit more upset at the fact Doujima had appeared in the middle of the night unannounced, but he knew that look and he just hoped to get out of this ordeal without being hit.

"Don't you dare call me _Yuri_ you stupid son of a bitch." Doujima sneered.

Sakaki swallowed. "Err . . . did I do something to upset you?"

Doujima narrowed her blue eyes that burnt with an icy rage. "You're cheating on me Sakaki." Then, a moment later she added: "Or you were cheating on me back when I was your girlfriend."

Now it was Sakaki's turn to be taken aback. "What? I am not!"

Doujima shot him a glance so cold it felt like a thousand tiny knives made of pure ice were shooting into his spine and freezing his blood as they drilled it out of him.

"My friend Seto called me tonight. He recognized you in the flower shop today, buying roses. He called to tease me and ask if you got lucky, and you know Sakaki, I'd kind of like to know, did you? Who's the slut you're seeing behind my back?"

Suddenly a look of understanding passed over Sakaki's face and he felt a cold chill pass over his heart. Guilt was overwhelming him; of course it wasn't the guilt she thought it was. It wasn't guilt because those flowers were for another woman, it was guilt from the fact he didn't tell her who they were for.

"Well?" Doujima asked angrily, tapping her foot on the floor as she pursed her lips and placed her hands on her hips."They were for my mother." Sakaki said quietly. "She died nine years ago. Yesterday was her birthday."

At first Doujima's face didn't change one bit, unless it became madder, obviously because she thought he was lying. That was until she saw the look in his eyes. That horrible look of pure fear she had seen only once before. When they had been trapped in a bathroom together on their way to hunt David Rica, and he had awoken from an obvious nightmare.  
  
Suddenly she knew he was telling the truth and all the anger left her body at the speed of light, instead being replaced with guilt, sorrow and pity. She slowly sat down on the edge of the bed and began to stare at her feet.

"Gomen. Gomen nasai." She said at length, no longer looking at him.

"No." Sakaki said quietly. "I should have told you. I just . . ."

"It's okay." Doujima said, suddenly feeling very bad about coming here at all. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"No. I should just tell you." Sakaki said. "Nine years ago, when I was just a kid. It was my mother's birthday. I had been saving all the change I could get my hands on for months to buy her a present."

Sakaki stopped, now looking down at his hands.  
  
"You don't have too—"  
  
"No." Sakaki waved her off. "I went to the store that morning. I bought her this pretty necklace. It was just a cheap little thing, but I thought it would have looked good on her. I, I came home and I found the door was open. I thought maybe she was expecting me. But . . ."

He broke off, his voice now nothing but a terrified whisper. Doujima felt horrible now. Sakaki was not the kind of person who cried, he was not the person who wore his emotions on his sleeves. He was much more emotional than Amon, but he was still closed up. And yet now . . . he was on the verge of sobbing tears.

"I walked into the living room and . . . and there was my father. I hadn't seen him in years. He used to beat us. My ma' and me. We moved to Tokyo when I was six to get away from him. I didn't remember him well, but I knew who he was instantly. He was . . . he was all covered in blood. And he told me to come with him. And I said no. I asked him where mom was. And you know what he said? Do you know what that sick bastard said to his ten year old son?"

Sakaki looked up at his girlfriend's face, and behind the tears that soaked his cheeks and covered his eyes Doujima could see a horrible memory that would never be forgotten, no matter how hard he tried.

"He pointed all around me. He pointed at the walls. That's when I noticed them. All the walls were covered in blood. And he says 'you're mama? She's everywhere'. And then he laughed. He stood there and he laughed. He laughed like the fucking bastard he was."  
  
Sakaki paused for a few moments in which the only sound was the sound of his tears and the echo of Doujima chewing her lip.

"And then I attacked him. I wanted to hurt him. I wanted to kill him."  
  
"What happened?" Doujima asked quietly. During the course of the story she had moved over next to him and was now hugging him as tightly as she could. He was sobbing into her shoulder.

"He beat me. He beat me till I was covered in blood. He would have killed me but then he got shot. Someone shot him. I guess it was the police, I really don't remember. All I know is he got crazy. When I woke up I was in a hospital. The policeman told me my father had run away. I haven't seen him since."

When Sakaki had finished his story Doujima's face was covered in tears just like his own. She started to say something but he shook his head.

"You should go Yuri. I need to be alone for a while. I'll call you tomorrow."

Doujima sighed, she obviously disagreed with what he had just said completely, feeling that being alone was the last thing he needed, but she had no right to question his decision.   
  
"Okay. I love you."

"I know." Sakaki said grimly.

Doujima sighed and stood up slowly, her blue eyes watching Sakaki's sad form as she disappeared through his bedroom door and then out the front one only seconds later.  
  
Sakaki said nothing as he fell back into his pillows. He had lied to her. Not about his story. It was true. Every last word of the story was true except for the part where he said it had been the police who saved his life from his father.

It hadn't been the police. It had been Solomon.Because Kichiro Wantanabee, Sakaki's father, was a Witch.

**----**

It was late, and at last Michael had gone back to sleep.   
  
Sleep free from the sight of Robin dying, or the sound of David Rica laughing or the smell of blood as it poured from his lover's throat onto his hands. He did dream about Robin as he slept, but she was not dead in this dream. In this dream she was very much alive, and doing the most interesting trick Michael had ever seen which involved a strawberry and a part of her body . . .

While Michael slept once again, still sleeping on a spare futon Touko had dug out of her closer, Touko herself was very much awake. It was late now, 1:21am. Right now Doujima was just leaving Sakaki's house, after learning the truth about his father. And while Doujima did that, Touko was getting dressed.

Nothing fancy, she decided at last. Amon hadn't exactly sounded too happy over the phone, but then again Amon had _never_ sounded too happy exactly. Even during their love making. Still, she didn't think it was bad news that he had called her.

Slipping into a simple black dress she'd bought a week ago, and wrapping herself in her coat for warmth, Touko crept past the couch where Michael slept and towards the front door. When she opened it she gave a small gasp to find Amon already standing in the hallway. His face was expressionless and he didn't even say so much as a hello to her.

"I thought we were going to meet at the park." Touko said quietly, closing the door behind her so that Michael could not hear them if he woke up.

"I don't think we should see each other anymore." Amon said his voice no different than it ever was. All emotion was drained from his face, as was per usual.

Touko didn't seam surprised. "I see. May I ask why?"

Amon said nothing for a moment. His face showed the slightest hint of some feeling for a moment behind his dark eyes before he finally answered her question. "I just don't think it's a good idea."

"You mean." Touko said quietly. "That you don't want to make me chose between you or my father."

Amon said nothing.

"It is okay, I understand." She leaned in and kissed his cheek softly. "Maybe someday."  
  
Amon didn't say anything, but he seriously doubted the day she spoke of would ever come.

**----**

Kenny wasn't even fazed by the blood anymore.

Kenny Avery was New York City's top Homicide detective. He had seen everything in the book and was more than used to the unnatural and unexplained deaths that were frequent. He even knew about the existence of Solomon and Witches, even though he wasn't a seed or a hunter.

New York City. The call it the city that never sleeps. They also call it the greatest city in the world. Kenny was sure no one would call it the last nickname if they had his job. Personally he thought it was the greatest city, even if he did spend six out of seven days a week looking at dead body after dead body.

Now however Kenny wasn't interested in these things. He wasn't even in New York. He was down in New Orleans, Louisiana, the city his family was original from. He loved the bayou. It was always great down there. And the catfish was wonderful.

And fortunately for him, the man he was meeting for dinner was currently eating Catfish.

The house was the stereotype of a New Orleans native during the civil war. Colonel Sanders himself could have lived there, raising his chickens and frying them for dinner all around. Of course the Colonel was from Kentucky, (or at least his fast food chain was) but that didn't matter to most who saw it.

It was huge and made from oak, sitting right smack down in the Bayou. The smell of Cajun cooking was an overpowering odor in the air at the home of Charles Calypso.

On the outside the gardens were well kept, and the paint was always fresh and white. But on the inside the house was dark, lights were non-existent. Only old candles illuminating the blackness. The main hallway had two doors to either side, the one of the left led to the ballroom, and the one of the right led to a sitting lounge that contained a chair, grandfather clock and an old couch like the kind psychiatrist use.

Cobwebs and spiders were a common site downstairs, but upstairs there was no light. Up the dark, poorly painted staircase. The stairs were at the end of the main hallway from in front of the front door.

Kenny didn't like the mansion but he wasn't here out of choice either. The man on the other end of the phone call two days ago had point blank given him a choice. Kenny could come down to New Orleans, and then proceed to London and finally Tokyo or the stranger on the phone would show Kenny's wife some photos of Kenny at a strip club.

Kenny sighed. He hadn't cheated on his wife in over five years, and while he had vowed never to do so again, he also had neglected to tell her he had ever done so. That was something he was saving until he was on his death bed.   
  
With another sigh Kenny walked into the Kitchen of the old Louisiana mansion to find several candles illuminated the room.

The man who stood in the kitchen preparing the catfish waved to Kenny and bid him hello in a thick accent. The man had trimmed black hair and a handsome face beneath a pair of dark sunglasses. The man had a pointed nose and a big chin. Between the two were his pale lips, which currently wore a smug smile.

"Do you like catfish, lil' puppy?" David Rica asked as he welcomed Kenny to his house.

**-------------------**


	3. Michael’s Musings

**Witch Hunter Robin  
False Echoes  
  
Chapter III – Michael's Musings**

**  
Disclaimer**: You know by now I don't own **Witch Hunter Robin®** which belongs to **Sunrise® **and **Sci-Fi® Channel**. If I owned the show Robin would have vanished with Michael at the end.

**----**

Michael woke up with a sleepy yawn and rubbed his blue eyes lightly as he gave a grunt.

He sighed and threw the old blanket off his body as he stood up and stretched. He had never been a morning person. Michael spent all his days staying up till three am working on reports for Chief Kosaka. He was a night owl. He could stay up all night long and then wake up ready to go after only a few hours of sleep.

The orange-haired hacker gave a sleepy sigh as he looked around the room. He wanted to see Robin, but she wasn't here. The memories of the dream last night were still fresh in his mind. Both dreams, really, but he was so obsessed with the horror of the first one that he had almost forgotten the second one . . .

With a sigh he saw no sign of her. Touko had probably already gone to work by now, and he wondered where Robin would be. He looked down the hall towards her bedroom door and he wondered for a second if it would be okay to go knock on it. He had no idea how late she usually slept.

With a shrug he decided to find out, pulling himself up to his full height he walked down the hallway, his eyes going to look at the pictures Touko had decorated her wall with. His eyes passed over the open bathroom door as he walked and he saw Robin sitting in the bathtub, a bucket of soapy water next to her and a sponge in her hands as she tried to clean the tile walls of the shower.

She was wearing the same black, nun-like dress she wore as regular clothing and Michael wondered if she had more than one of them. But the bottom of the dress was pulled up over her legs and tied so that she wouldn't get it all wet or dirty from the shower bottom. Her hair was pulled back into a bun and tied with the two purple ribbons that usual kept it at her sides.

"The shower works better when you turn it on." Michael mused.Robin laughed but didn't turn around. "I'm cleaning."

"I see that." He said as he crossed into the bathroom and took a seat on the toilet lid, looking over at her. "But it doesn't need to be clean. This is probably the cleanest bathroom I've ever seen."

Robin shook her head and smiled. "I know, but it's a habit. In the Covent these were my chores." She smiled and turned her head to look at him, but suddenly her smile died as her emerald eyes fell on the equally emerald numbers on the digital clock on the wall behind Michael.  
  
"I'm late." Robin frowned. Michael blinked.

"Late for what?"  
  
"Church." She said with a pout as she stood up and peeled off the rubber gloves she was wearing over her petite hands.

"Can I come with you?" Michael asked eagerly. Since being released from Raven's Flat he hadn't seen much more than the dinner he and Robin had eaten at Harry's the night before, and her apartment, which he had been in once before when he was taking care of her after Nobunaga had tricked Sakaki into shooting her.

"Of course you can." Robin said as she untied the knot she'd made in her dress and let the length of black material slip down around her ankles once more. Michael smiled at her as he stood up and walked over closer to her. She was untying her hair from behind her head so she could retie it on her sides.

Michael slipped his hands around her waist and leaned in to kiss her cheek softly. He had been meaning to thank her for calming him down the previous night but the words didn't need to be said. She smiled and kissed him back as she tied one of her pigtails out to the right.

Michael sighed happily. He had a feeling the next eleven days were going to be wonderful.

If only he knew how wrong he was.

**----**

"Vodka martini, and shake it, don't stir it, won't you puppy?"

David Rica thanked the airline steward kindly as she took his drink order and then turned to Kenny Avery next to him to ask what he wanted.

"Scotch. On the rocks."

Rica gave a small chuckle as the woman bowed her head politely and walked down the hall to take a dozen more drinks orders before she'd finally bring there's back to them. Rica didn't really care. SOLOMON hadn't given him enough of a budget for a first class trip, even if what he was doing was an order straight from the highest sources of the Witch Hunting organization.

Kenny was fidgeting nervously and running one of his hands through his sleek blonde hair. Rica sighed and looked down the hallway to where the stewardess was taking more orders. Maybe he should have taken first class after all, gotten better service.

"So what's the job?" Kenny asked suddenly, turning his head away from the window and towards Rica.

"I'll tell you when we're on the airplane." Rica replied from his smug lips.

"We are on the airplane." Kenny said shortly, narrowing his eyes.

"The airplane to Japan." Rica smiled sarcastically. "And don't you know it's rude to narrow your eyes when some people are deprived of that function."  
  
Kenny cursed and pounded his fist on his in-flight tray. "You keep saying shit like that Rica. I'm not one of you poet sons-of-bitches, what is that supposed to mean? What does not having eyes mean?"

Rica laughed and reached up, placing a pale finger on his sunglasses. "It means what it sounds like."

David lifted off his glasses and Kenny screamed very loudly at what he saw. His blue eyes stared directly into two, rotten, corpse-like sockets where eyes had once been.

"What, what the hell are you?" Kenny choked out as his hand went for the gun at his belt. Of course as a police officer he could bring it with him on the plane to London, especially after Rica identified himself as a SOLOMON agent.

"Not sure." Rica said. "I wonder where our drinks are."

"What the fuck do you mean not sure?"  
  
"You know puppy, you must have been licking your ass for a long time to get such a potty mouth."

"You have three seconds before I shoot you." Kenny explained heatedly.

"It won't do anything if you do. Believe me; I've been shot many times before. And what I mean by not sure is I do not know what I am. I used to be a Witch, and then I was a zombie for a while, now I'm something else."  
  
Kenny didn't look convinced at the least.  
  
"So how's Kim? Your pretty little wife? Think she knows about those hookers when you went on vacation in Vegas?"  
  
Kenny sighed. "Where are our drinks?"  
  
Rica laughed.

**----**

Doujima sat on the edge of a small pond in the park, trying her best to skip stones across the glassy surface.

The blonde was shaken by what she had heard the night before. The story of Sakaki's past was an incredibly sad and horrible one and she hated it. She hated thinking that Haruto had to endure all of that. Most of all she hated how sad he had looked.

She had really fallen for him, and fallen hard. Doujima didn't quite know _why_. She had started flirting with Sakaki out of boredom, but after everything that had happened to them during their struggle with David Rica, and everything ever since, she had truly fallen for him.

She loved him.

"Hey."  
  
Doujima was so surprised by Sakaki's voice from behind her that she bolted up too fast and almost fell into the pond, but he reached out and caught her arm, keeping her from falling the entire way.  
  
When he had successfully pulled her back up she looked into his eyes and to her surprised there wasn't even a trace of the horror she had seen only a few hours ago as he lay in bed, telling his tale. She was confused by this, and he noticed that and shook his head.  
  
"Just forget last night Yurika."

Doujima wanted to do just the opposite, but as he shook his head she could see that the sadness was not gone, it had only been buried deeper inside so that she could not see it. She sighed and agreed, by leaning in and kissing him softly.

They broke the kiss and stood, goggling at each other for a minute before the growling of Sakaki's stomach broke the romantic silence and he sweat-dropped.

"Let's go to Harry's." Doujima suggested with a sly smile.

"Right you are." Sakaki grinned back but suddenly as he did his grin vanished. His eyes were shooting over Doujima's shoulder to where a man stood, leaning against a tree. He wore an over-large brown coat and a scarf that concealed the bottom portion of his face. His sunglasses covered what was left, and he wore thick fedora hat like the kind in gagster movies."Hey! Buddy, why don't you mind your own business?" Sakaki called over angrily.  
  
"Oh ignore him Haruto-kun, he's bigger than you."  
  
Sakaki ignored Doujima and walked towards the man. Indeed he was bigger than Sakaki; he was built like a football player, tall, lean and big as a hippopotamus. The man didn't acknowledge Sakaki in the least as he walked over.

"Hey, I said stop staring at us. What's your problem?" Sakaki said his voice full of anger. He was only feet from the man now.

"I'm sorry." The man said quietly, but his voice had no sign of remorse in it. "I just wanted to be sure it was you."

Sakaki narrowed his eyes, anger still pulsing through his entire body. He didn't know why he was so angry; it was the combination of this being the day after his mother was killed, and the fact this pervert found it interesting to watch him and Doujima kiss.

"What do you mean?" Sakaki asked, but it was more a demand than a question.

The man said nothing; he only turned around and began to walk away slowly. Sakaki cursed at him and told him to get back over there, but the man ignored him completely.

Beneath his scarf the man smiled. He had found Haruto. Just like Zaizen had promised him when he agreed to take this job.

The man smiled widely.

**----**

"I love this park."  
  
Robin and Michael had just gotten out of church and now they were strolling down the pathways of the park that sat between her apartment building and the church she prayed at. Of course she loved this park for many reasons, but mostly because of the memories it held.

Michael knew those memories. They were walking down the very dirt path where they had met one another after Michael had been shot. It was here that they saw each other for the first time after they realized they loved one another.This park held so many memories for the young lovers. From the rich, tan soil beneath their feet to the vast green-leafed trees that surrounded them on all sides, they loved this park so much it was hard to expresses with words. They loved this park because it reminded them of each other.

"We should do something special." Robin said suddenly as they continued to walk along in silence. Her hand was clasped around Michael's and her head was leaning into his shoulder peacefully.  
  
"Yeah. We should." Michael agreed as he gave her hand a little squeeze. An idea had come to his mind, but he was unsure if she'd enjoy it or not. "Hey Robin?"

"Yes?"  
  
"I have wanted to go to this museum downtown. My mother's artwork is hanging there. I've always wanted to see it."  
  
Robin stopped and stared up at him. "You're mother was an artist?"

Robin's emerald eyes meet his sky blue ones and he smiled at her. "Yeah. She moved here from England after her father died. She painted for a while. That's how she met my father. He was the security guard at the museum, before he became a cop."

Robin had never heard Michael speak about his parents before. She knew they were both dead now, but he had said no more than that. Robin sighed and gave his hand another squeeze.  
  
"Of course we can go Michael."

Michael smiled and kissed the top of her head. "Thanks."

**----**

The large black Factory van sped down the path towards the abandon warehouse.

There was still _always_ an abandon warehouse.

The Factory van stopped right outside and the door on the side burst open, outside came at least twenty men in black suits, carrying Orbo Guns. Of course there was no real problem with the Orbo. Zaizen's scientist had fixed the Orbo in mere hours. The real reason he had closed the STN-J for twelve days was to test his new idea.

Using Humans, instead of Seeds, for Witch Hunting.

The squad of Factory agents ran up towards the door, and one of the men in the black body armor suits placed a small C4 explosive on the door. A moment later the team moved backwards in such a highly trained fashion the American Navy Seals would have been proud.   
  
The door was blown open with a flash of fire and a loud bang and the team shot inside quickly. Down past the many stacked crates and pillars, past the boxes and conveyer-belts. Down towards the office where Ko Matsudo sat at an old desk.

The door to the office was kicked in and several Orbo bullets were fired at an incredible speed. The Witch didn't even have time to use his craft before he fell slumped over on the table.

Zaizen smiled back at the Factory. Everything was going according to plan.

**----**

The sun had fallen from the sky.

Sakaki and Doujima were sitting at a booth near the window of Harry's. They had been there all day long, but as they had nothing else to do they decided to stay.  
  
Since the park their day had been fun. They had eaten lunch at the bar while chatting with Yuji Kobari for a while, and then they had moved over to the booth nearest the window and flirted with one another for a while, playing footsie under the table and laughing at each other's jokes.

Now however it was getting dark and they were finishing their dinner. They had already decided to go catch a movie when they got done eating. Doujima smiled over at him and he returned the grin happily.

"So what movie do you want to see?" Doujima asked as she reached down into her purse and began to dig around for something.

"Ah, damn." Sakaki cursed quietly.  
  
"What?" Doujima asked, looking up.  
  
"Well, if you actual care what movie it is that means we won't be making out." Sakaki grinned at her, and she laughed.

"Aww, we can still make out, just only during the boring parts."

Doujima smiled up at him with the sly smile he had become quite used to. He was about to say something when his eyes traveled from her pretty face to out the window where his bike was parked. His eyes widened and he couldn't believe it.  
  
"What the . . . for real?"  
  
Doujima blinked. "What?"  
  
Sakaki however was already standing up and walking towards the door. Doujima was confused until she looked out the window. There was the man from the park. The man in the oversized brown coat, with the scarf, sunglasses and hat. Doujima groaned and quickly followed Sakaki.

"Hey, you again. Didn't I tell you before?"

The man was fingering Sakaki's bike seat gently and he seamed amused by Sakaki's anger. "You have your mother's eyes. I hate those eyes."  
  
Sakaki froze dead in his tracks. A second later he had pulled his gun from beneath his jacket. Of course Zaizen had made them all leave their Orbo guns at the office, but Sakaki had his own. "Don't you dare talk about my mother!"  
  
"Haruto! Don't shoot the man!" Doujima said angrily as she grabbed his arm.

"She's cute." The man said as he reached into his pocket and pulled something out. "You gonna give me one of these too?"  
  
Sakaki heart suddenly fell.

The man opened his hand, revealing a silver chain wrapped around his middle finger. On the end of the chain was a small, golden flower with a fake diamond in the center. It was the necklace.

The necklace he had bought his mother for her birthday when she was murdered. The necklace he had lost after his father had beaten him.

"It's been a long time, Haruto." Kichiro Wantanabee, Sakaki's father said with a sly grin as he stripped himself of his scarf and sunglasses.

**----**

Robin and Michael arrived at the museum as the sun vanished from the sky and the moon rose to take its place.

The pair of young lovers had barley reached the door when the security guard arrived to stop them.

"Sorry, exhibition show tonight. You need to be on the VIP lis— Michael?"

The guard stopped suddenly in mid speech. His eyes had fallen on Michael's face and now he was staring at him intently. Michael smirked and shook his head. There was a moment's pause and then the guard, Jyou, opened his mouth wide and seamed to be surprised as he had been in his entire life.

"Michael? Little Michael?"

Michael smirked as he squeezed Robin's hand. "Yeah Jyou. It's been a while."

Jyou looked as if he had just spotted a favorite nephew he hadn't seen in years. And indeed it was almost like that, because Jyou Taiga had been Tai Lee's best friend in the world, and he had been there when Michael was born. Of course since Michael's parents died and he joined the STN-J they hadn't seen one another.

"I can't believe it. You've grown."

Michael nodded his head to Robin and then to the line of impatient rich people behind them who were all clearing their throat and Jyou seamed to get the message. He winked at Michael and quickly opened the museum door for him.  
  
"See you Jyou." Michael called back quietly.  
  
"They just put up some more of Kelly's paintings in the usual section." Jyou responded.

Walking hand in hand with Robin, Michael quickly found the usual section. It was an old gallery dedicated to art from Europe, where all of Kelly Lee's art had been displayed. Most of the art still read Kelly Campbell, from before she had been married, but some of the newer pieces had the name Lee on them.

Michael sighed. Memories of his mother had invaded his mind now. He missed her everyday. So badly that it hurt sometimes.

"They're beautiful." Robin piped up suddenly, looking at a painting of a starry night above London.

"Yeah. She had talent. She never made any money off it but she had talent." Michael smiled.

"Is that your dad?" Robin suddenly asked, pointing towards the largest portrait on the wall. It looked older than the rest. It was a beautiful picture of three friends.

A tall man with jet black hair and a thin mustache in the middle, with two people by his side. One was a young woman with thick, dark red hair and a pale but freckled face. The third man looked . . . well, a lot like Michael. His nose was bigger, and his eyes were a different color, and he had a different hair style, but he still looked a lot like Michael.

Michael shook his head. "No. That's my ancestor, on my mother's side. Michael Campbell. I was named after him. He was on the London Police force over a hundred years ago. The girl is his wife, Rosalind Campbell. And the man is Rick Richards, his best friend. He was a cop too."

Robin looked up. "They look happy."  
  
Michael nodded. "Yeah. They were. Until they were murdered."  
  
Robin blinked. "Murdered?"

Michael walked over and pointed at a glass case where a variety of objects sat. A rapier sword, a small gold bracelet, and a pocket watch.

"Michael Campbell was found in his hotel room, shot to death, on his honeymoon. Rosalind and Rick vanished. Rosalind had been Rick's best friend since childhood. As the story goes he fell in love with her and killed Michael, and he and Rosalind ran off together."

Robin stared sadly at the old portrait. "That's horrible."  
  
Michael nodded. "Yes it is."  
  
Michael looked up and stared at the portrait. He stared at Rick Richards, the man who betrayed and murdered his ancestor.

And Rich Richard stared back down at Michael Lee with an angry look of hatred.

Then the lights went out.

**----------------**


	4. Fire Fights and Frozen Food

**Witch Hunter Robin  
False Echoes  
  
Chapter IV – Fire Fights and Frozen Food**

   
**  
Disclaimer**: You know by now I don't own **Witch Hunter Robin®** which belongs to **Sunrise® **and **Sci-Fi® Channel**. If I owned the show Robin would have vanished with Michael at the end.  
  
Nor do I own the song _False Echoes_; I just borrowed its title.  
  
Storyline, Plot, **Kenny** **Avery©**,** Roger Williams©** and, **David** **Rica©** are mine.****

**----------------**

"You've grown."   
  
Kichiro Wantanabee was grinning from ear to ear as he held the tiny silver necklace out in front of him. Kichiro's teeth were yellow and nasty but they gleamed with an eerie golden light as he smiled his polluted smile. His grin widened as Sakaki's eyes filled with more and more fear. It gave him such pleasure to watch his son in such fear and agony. He knew that right now Sakaki could hear the voices of both himself and the boy's dead mother.

The alleyway was dark and the moon's eerie shadow was cast down upon them like a silver fiend watching the unfolding chaos. The hoary haze that had befallen the alley between Harry's and the street was only a echo of the pain to come.

Sakaki did not respond to Kichiro's words, which only furthered Kichiro's pleasure in his son's horror. The man hated his son. Just as he had hated his wife. The reasons for that hatred were unknown, even to him. He did not care, however. What mattered now was ending Haruto's life slowly, and then reporting back to Zaizen.

"You've grown but you're still scrawny. Like a midget lobster in the tank at the restaurant that no one ever wants so eventually the chef has to kill it. Too bad. But I'm the chef."

Sakaki seamed to be in a trance. Unable to move or think or resist in any way. His gun was in his hands, and he could have easily pulled the trigger. The problem was that ever second he heard the sounds of his mother crying, or he heard the sound of his father laughing.

Kichiro began to walk forward, his grin full of malice and his eyes full of hate. His mind was filled with many ideas of how to kill his son. It would be fun. Of course Haruto would die today, but he'd die slowly. Kichiro wanted to make him suffer. And he was very good at that.

It was then, as Kichiro began to walk forward with that malicious grin that Sakaki seamed to snap back into reality with a painful jolt. He growled and squeezed the cold metal trigger, sending one of the nine millimeter bullets flying towards his father as fast as it would travel. Kichiro didn't even flinch as the bullet stopped in mid air and fell harmlessly to the ground.

Kichiro didn't move his right hand, which held the necklace aloft. Sakaki fired three more shots out of anger, not thinking about his father being a witch in the least. The bullets all paused in mid air and hit the ground. Kichiro's left hand slowly went towards his pocket, his fingers slowly wrapped around the butt of his gun. He was very good with guns, that why he used them despite his Witch's power. He could shoot Sakaki full of five entire clips, and if he shot him in the right spots, Sakaki would not die.

Sakaki would scream. He would bleed. The young boy would be on the ground as burgundy blood discharged from his body by the masses. Sakaki would cry tears of bittersweet salt and he would whine and beg for the sweet release of death before he was finally given it.

"Sayonara Musuko." (Goodbye Son) These were the only words that escaped his lips as he raised the gun. Sakaki saw it but he did not try to move. He had run from his father since he was just a boy, and the seventeen-year-old STN rookie was not about to run again. He fired the remaining bullets off his gun's clip but Kichiro stopped them.

Then the car horn honked, like a ancient Samurai battle cry from horseback.  
  
Kichiro didn't have time to react as Doujima's car went sailing into his back, sending him to the ground with a painful thud and a snapping crunch. Sakaki blinked as he looked up to see a grinning Yurika sitting behind the wheel. He hadn't even noticed her leave, and neither had Kichiro.

"Get in!" She snapped quickly.Sakaki ignored her. He walked over to where his father was now lying, blood oozing from the man's back. Sakaki reached down and picked up the sleek black automatic handgun where his father had dropped it and he cocked it. Doujima closed her eyes. She knew Sakaki would do it. She just didn't want to watch.

Sakaki then reached down and picked up the small silver necklace in the shape of a flower and he put it in his pocket. With a sneer he pressed the gun into the back of his father's head. Then the gun shot from his hand and flew into Kichiro's outstretched palm.

Kichiro lifted his head and laughed as he rolled over onto his back and aimed the gun at his son. Of course the witch was hurt and it hurt his legs even more to roll over like that, but he didn't care. Haruto would die.   
  
Sakaki, however, was able to jump aside as the bullets came flying. He quickly scrambled over towards the car where Doujima had already opened the door for him. Quickly he got inside and then threw an arm around her.

"Run him over!" He shouted quickly.

Doujima hesitated.

"Now, before his powers kick in!" Sakaki shouted once again.

But Sakaki's voice wasn't the only one echoing in her mind.

_"Time for the birdie to die." Rica smiled._

_"Time for the puppy to bite the jackass." Doujima's voice snapped. Rica blinked his one remaining eye and looked down to the ground where he had thrown away his gun. Doujima now held the gun in her hand._

_Rica changed the flow of his water jet from Robin's face to Doujima's side but he was too later, the blonde had pulled the trigger and the bullet had flown from his own gun into Rica's one remaining eye._

_Rica let out a second scream even worse than the first as he fell backwards right into an ugly chair, blood pouring out of his right eye just as it had from his left. Doujima blinked after the water stopped pounding her chest and looked up at the chair. Rica lay in the chair lopsided, his head rolled on his shoulder and his tongue sticking out of his mouth._

_Doujima looked at his dead body. Doujima looked and felt the horror in taking a life for the first time in her own. She felt all of the emotions that came when you end another human beings existence. And she didn't like it._

Doujima could not pull the car forward. She could not take another life. Even if this life, like the last one she'd taken, was a life of evil and hate. Sakaki tried to grab the wheel but it was impossible with the frozen Yurika in his way.

Then to both of their equal horror, the windshield exploded. Kichiro was climbing up to his uneasy feet and his eyes were glowing with the craft as he began to crush the car around them.

Doujima was still out, and Sakaki had one hell of a time putting the car in reverse and speeding away from where his father stood. He was angry and he wanted to kill the bastard, but enough sense had come back to him for him to know he could not fight a craft-user without the Orbo.

"I'm sorry." Doujima cried.

"Shut up." Sakaki snapped as he continued to lean over her to drive the car away from Harry's, and away from the alley where Kichiro stood. This was her fault. If she had just ran him over like he said then that bastard who killed his mother would finally be dead.

He didn't even notice the tears streaming from Doujima's eyes.

**----**

Touko was worried.

It was late and she was cold, wrapping her coat around her body as tight as she could. Her mind was still trying to adjust to what the doctor had said. She was not worried about what Amon would say. Of course he had broken up with her, and they knew that after what happened two years ago they would never be happy together, but maybe this was a second chance.

Of course the problem was her father. She could not stay in Japan, he would find out. He would notice it. And if she went to New York to live with her mother, than he father would become suspicious. And if he found out . . .

_You have no proof he had anything to do with last time. He's your father! He wouldn't do that._

And still, she believed in her heart that Takuma Zaizen, the man who had given her life, had committed the ultimate crime against her two years ago. Zaizen had committed a crime against Amon as well, but Touko had lied to him. She had forbidden herself or her mother to tell Amon the truth.

Still, ever since it happened she knew Amon didn't love her anymore. She couldn't blame him, either. What had happened was horrible.

And she prayed it didn't happen this time.

**----**

Karasuma hated shopping.

Most nineteen-year-old girls would have had a completely other view on that subject, but not Miho Karasuma. She hated it. Of course she hadn't acted her age since she was ten, and even then she seamed more like twelve to most.

Still, shopping was important. She'd already had to buy a new suit for the office, new shoes to go with it, and of course the basic provisions for the small room in her apartment that some may have called a kitchen. She sighed. It really was no fun.

Miho was now standing in the middle of the frozen food section, trying to decide between a TV dinner and a frozen pizza. They both sounded horrible to her, but she was too tired to cook anything and even if she did it'd probably taste the same as this stuff.

"You should be careful in this section; you're so hot you'll melt all the food."

Karasuma narrowed her eyes as she turned around and then both she and Nagira gasped. Nagira then laughed.

"Sorry, force of habit. What are the odd, err, Miho, right?"

"Karasuma." Miho said colder than the frozen dinner in her hand. Nagira laughed again as he gave a puff on his cigarette. Then he blinked.

"Shouldn't you be out at work right now. I thought Witches were most active at night."  
  
Karasuma rolled her eyes. "That's a cliché, and besides, we're off work until the first of the month." She paused. "Didn't Amon tell you?"  
  
Nagira laughed a third time. "Amon and I don't talk much."  
  
Karasuma was surprised. She had met Nagira in the hospital three months ago after Amon had been shot in the neck by David Rica. From what Nagira said he and Amon sounded like friends. "Why not?"

"I think he's still mad at dad."  
  
"Amon's mad at your dad?"  
  
"Amon's mad at _our_ dad."

Karasuma blinked. "Our? Amon is your brother?"

Nagira nodded as he gave one last puff of his cigarette, put it out on the edge of his shopping cart, and then threw the butt of it into the open frozen food door. Karasuma was disgusted by this but said nothing. She was far more intrigued that Amon, who she had known for almost six years, had never mentioned a brother.

"Why?" Karasuma asked as she watched Nagira starts digging in the TV dinner's for those Hot Pockets.

"'Cause my dad had him with a Witch." Nagira said digging around.

Karasuma said nothing, obviously wanting to hear more. Nagira found his Hot Pockets and threw them into his cart. "Look, I don't even remember it that well. I was four years old when Amon was born. His ma' was a Witch. She was always real nice to me, though. Then she awakened and Amon was with her. Ever since he's been . . . different. Would you believe he was as cold and dark as he is now since he was eight?"

Karasuma smiled to herself. "I don't think he's cold."  
  
Nagira shrugged. "Well the girlfriend never does."  
  
Karasuma, though she blushed something awful, also narrowed her eyes. "I'm not Amon's girlfriend."  
  
Nagira laughed. "I know that. Touko is. Or was. But you want to be."

"I do not."  
  
"Let me guess, a few years ago the two of you had a kiss or something and every night before you sleep you think about him and sigh."

Karasuma slapped him.

Nagira laughed. "Yep, I knew it."

**----**

Kenny sighed. The airlines had refused to sell him more than two scotches, and after learning that his traveling companion was a zombie-witch hybrid creature, he had needed more alcohol.

"Hurry along puppy." Rica called over his shoulder. The London weather was nice today, not too hot, but not too cold. Kenny had always liked London. Rica thought their food was bad.

Rica looked around from behind his sunglasses (it was then Kenny wondered how he could even see) and in a moment Rica's face lit up into a smug smirk and he began to saunter towards a souvenir stand.

A man stood leaning against the wall of the stand, he was tall and gawky with messy red hair and a face full of freckles. The man looked perturbed almost as if he was expecting to pick up a relative he didn't like at the airport. David stopped in front of him.

"Mr. Williams?" Rica inquired.The redhead groaned. "You must be David Rica."  
  
Rica smiled his appalling smile. "That I am sir. Do you have the plane tickets to Tokyo?"

The redhead nodded slowly and grimly. "I do sir."  
  
Rica was pleased. Everything was working out perfectly. "Ah, right. British puppy, meet Yankee puppy." He pulled Kenny over towards the redhead.

"Roger Williams, this is Kenny Avery. Like you he can't keep it in his pants and has been blackmailed into working for me."  
  
"Nice to meet you mate." Roger said in an air of fake satisfaction.  
  
"Likewise." Kenny sighed. "You know any good bars around here?"  
  
Roger nodded. "There's an excellent pub just down the street. Great place to get smashed."  
  
"It'll have to wait." Rica grinned, taking pleasure in how much the two of them were suffering at his hands. "We have to get to Tokyo. I don't want to keep my favorite puppy waiting."  
  
Rica's mind was overflowing with thoughts of sugary retribution against Yurika Doujima.

**----**

The museum, like everything in Tokyo, was state-of-the-art.

The door and windows all had steel security plates that would cover them when the place was closed, which deterred most thieves. But high, cold steel doors could also keep people inside. This is why when they smashed down into the concrete walls, many people screamed.

It was now entirely black; the lights had vanished in an instant like candles in the wind. Of course it wasn't a power failure as Michael had heard someone say to try to soothe his screaming wife. If it was the power then the security system wouldn't have kicked in like that.

Michael felt someone brush against his side and he became tense, but a moment later he realized it was only Robin, who was now holding his hand. "Michael?"  
  
She didn't have to say anymore. "Something's going on; this is no ordinary power failure."  
  
Robin nodded and cast her bottle green eyes around in the shade, looking for any indication of whatever could have knocked off the lights and at the same moment issued the security system.   
  
Suddenly to their left there was a sound of glass breaking and Michael could see something stirring in the shadows. His eyes were not fully adjusted to the dark but he saw well enough to see the glass case containing the bracelet, the sword and the pocket watch was now shattered and someone stood at the edge of the case, holding the sword aloft in their hand.

Michael tensed. He quickly tugged on Robin's arm and pulled her over in the shadow, down behind a large case that held several small objects and small square painting. Robin had now noticed the shadows and her petite hand had shot into her black skirt and pulled out the small, curved glasses and slipped them over her pale nose.

"No." Michael said quickly, realizing what she was doing, setting a strong hand on her shoulder. Robin nodded, but made no move to remove her glasses.

They had lost the shadowy figure that had held the English foil aloft and their eyes tried desperately to find him. Many shadows moved around, some of them the rich people who had come for the display that night, one of them undoubtedly Jyou who was trying to calm people.

And then there was the scream.

Michael and Robin both spun around quickly in the darkness as they saw two outlines of figures. It was like trying to look around with a black veil over your eyes, but even with all of the trouble they saw the shape of an overweight man falling to the ground, and the shade of a tall, lean figure standing with a long rapier sword above his head.

"Shit." Michael cussed quietly as he grabbed for Robin but she had already taken off like a bullet towards the shadow. Her lime eyes had caught the shape of the sword-wielding stature and in a second an explosion of fire had illuminated the darkness as the man caught ablaze.

Many more people screamed as flames shot high into the sky and licked away the darkness like a pink puppy tongue cleaning dirt from its master's hand. Robin had stopped, her eyes focused on the now burning shadow. The man, his face was hidden by flames, seamed to be staring back at Robin and not even aware of the inferno that bit at his body.

The man began to run towards Robin, his sword still held above his head and a battle cry echoing from out of his burning throat. Michael had not been sitting on his ass and watching his girlfriend attack the foil-holding maniac, no, he had quickly ran through the now enlightened room and found Jyou.

Without a word to his father's former best friend, Michael shot his hand to the security guard's belt and grabbed the black handgun up from the holster. If Jyou even noticed this he made no move to show it, since his eyes were locked on the burning man and the young woman who attacked it.

Michael ran forward and fired a bullet into the man's flaming chest. By now the hacker had realized that this thing was not an ordinary human and therefore would not go down by a bullet, but still he had to draw its attention away from Robin. Of course Michael Lee, the STN-J's hacker was not thinking right now. He did not think that Robin was much more experienced in fighting the supernatural than he was, all that he was thinking about was the fact a burning creature obviously not human was waving a sword at the woman he loved.

The man stopped as the bullet sailed into his ribs and out his back. He turned a burning face towards Michael, and then suddenly the man's eerie black eyes illuminated with a color so dark it was darker than black.

"Campbell!"

**-------------------**


	5. Do You Trust Me?

  
  
**Witch Hunter Robin  
False Echoes  
  
Chapter V – Do You Trust Me? (Pt. I)****  
Disclaimer**: You know by now I don't own **Witch Hunter Robin®**, which belongs to **Sunrise® **and **Sci-Fi® Channel**. You know this already.Nor do I own the song _False Echoes_; I just borrowed its title.  
  
Storyline, Plot, **Kenny** **Avery©**,** Roger Williams©**, **David** **Rica©** and **Kichiro Wantanabee©** are mine.****

**----------------**

Michael's eyes opened with some difficulty, and the world around him was a colorless blur. Everything was black, but not just black, an odd shade of black almost as if he was seeing through a thick veil. Suddenly, the obscure view was blasted with a flash of color: a pale pinkish hue topped by a blonde blur with a reddish tint, and the two large bottle green orbs between that were Robin Sena's eyes.

"Michael."

Robin's voice sent a shockwave through the hacker that made his entire groggy form fill with warmth and a kind of electricity. He felt her petite hand touch his arm gently, and a second wave of heated affection burned through his tired body.

"What happened?"

Michael's eyes were still adjusting to the lack of light, and the sharp pain shooting through his skull didn't help them at all. He vaguely recalled a burning figure, covered by bright orange flames, wielding a British blade, and running towards him.

"I'm sorry Michael."

Michael's eyes had focused just enough for the veil around his sky blue orbs to loosen, and he could see briefly the tears that welled up in Robin's eyes. He tried to move to comfort her, but he found that movement of his left arm off the cold marble floor caused pain to shoot through it. His eyes flew down to gaze at his arm, and he found that several black spots covered it. At first, he thought it was only the blur in his eyes, until he discovered the black marks were actual burns.

"That person came at you. I tried to stop it. But I -, I, I'm sorry Michael."

"It's okay." Michael, with some difficulty and great pain, sat up, and pulled Robin into a one-armed hug using only his right arm. The burnt left one lay at his side, pain boiling through his entire body as the welts and burns rubbed against his shirt.

"What happened to that thing?" Michael asked.

Robin shook her head softly. "I don't know. He just sort of . . . vanished. Jyou helped me extinguish the fire on you. Then he brought us here."

Michael blinked as he looked around the room they sat in. The veil had almost lifted and now he could make out an old oak desk behind Robin, a small portable refrigerator, and a small nine-inch television sitting on the edge of the desk. He didn't have to ask where 'Here' was, he knew it was Jyou's office; the office of a night watchman. He knew because his father had been a night watchman before joining the police force.

"Where's Jyou now?"

"Trying to calm the people down," Robin responded in a whisper. "The doors and windows still won't open, and a lot of people think they heard that person with the sword screaming out 'Campbell' several times."

Michael sighed and wrinkled up his nose in thought. Campbell. Campbell had been what the sword-wielder had called Michael when it saw him. Campbell had been his mother's maiden name. Campbell had been the name of the man in the portrait who looked so much like Michael.

_God, please let me be wrong. Don't let it be what I think it is._

The portrait.

Michael remembered the man covered in fire as he had stared at Michael for a moment before screaming and running at him. Michael remembered those eyes, darker than black in color. He saw the man's face illuminated only by the fire that had covered him. And yet, it was hard to mistake.

The man who had attacked him looked exactly like Rick Richards from the portrait.

Rick Richards who had murdered Michael Campbell almost 100 years ago.

**----**

"Get out."

Doujima's face was still covered in thick tears as the bright red car that belonged to her arrived at her apartment. Sometime during the drive she and Sakaki had managed to switch seats. But now, she just sat in the passenger seat, sobbing quietly, while he drove with a burning hatred visible on his face.

"Haruto, I'm sorry, I-"

"Just get out," he said as he leaned over her slender form and grabbed the door handle, opening it and waiting for Doujima to leave. She made no move to move at all, only stared up at the face that had once shown such love for her, but now was filled only with hate.

"Haruto, I swear I wanted to. I just couldn't kill him, I'm sor-"

"Don't say you're sorry!" Sakaki screamed loudly. "Just get out of the car!"

"You can't fight him alone," she squeaked.

"And you can't help me," he snapped.

"I love you."

"No you don't. Now get out of the car."

"No." Doujima sat up, tears still covered her cheeks and stung at her flesh, but she did not let them keep her strength down. She glared at him with a fury equal to his own. "I won't let you do this alone. And this is _my car_. So if you're going after your father, I'm going with you."

"Fine," Sakaki snapped, turning, and exiting the red car from the driver's side door. "Goodbye Doujima."

Doujima fell down onto the seat of the car and cried silently as Sakaki vanished down the dark street; alone and unarmed, going on a mad quest to fight, no to kill, his father, who was not only armed, but a craft user.

Still, she had one idea. Ignoring her tears, she went for her purse, and the cell phone within.

**----**

_The clicking of keys and the silent sobs from the kitchen were the only sounds heard in Raven's Flat._

_Kosaka was tired and he wanted nothing more than to go home. Of course the Chief would be pissed with him if he didn't finish the report soon._

_Suddenly there was a sound and the bald man turned his head, afraid he'd see the chief standing in the elevator._

_Kosaka breathed a sigh of relief when he saw it was only Amon. Amon was the new rookie hunter on the team, a dark and quiet guy. Kosaka was a bit afraid of him, but if Kosaka wanted to take the Chief's job after he retired, he'd have to stay here and work with everyone._

_"Amon, you're here late. Everyone else went home."_

_Amon's dark gray eyes passed over Kosaka and headed towards the kitchen._

_"Someone's there." Amon said, his hand instinctively going for his gun._

_"Oh, that's the new girl, Karasuma, SOLOMON sent her. She's a little young, but her craft skills make her useful." Kosaka paused to check and see if Karasuma could hear him. "She messed up the hunt this morning while you were being evaluated by Mr. Zaizen."_

_Amon ignored Kosaka, re-holstered his gun, then began walking towards the kitchen. It only took a moment to find the fourteen-year-old girl in the corner. Miho Karasuma was tucked between a pair of cabinets, silently crying into a tissue._

_It took a moment for her to realize that Amon was now standing before her and watching her, and when she finally took notice she paused and blushed as she sobbed._

_"Why are you crying?" Amon asked; his voice hit her like ice._

_"I messed up." Karasuma whispered quietly. "I let Calypso escape. I could have shot him but I didn't."_

_"You're a Witch Hunter. Witch Hunters don't cry," Amon said matter-of-factly._

_"Well, thank you for that valuable information, Captain Obvious," Karasuma snapped. "I'm not even good enough to be a Witch Hunter. SOLOMON only sent me because of my powers."_

_"Baka." Amon spoke coldly. "You were born a Witch, that limits your career choices. You can be a hunter, or one of the hunted. The only time you should cry is when SOLOMON decides you're useless."_

_"Bastard!" Karasuma stood up and tried to slap Amon across the face, but he caught her wrist quickly._

_"Cry when you're looking down the barrel of a gun."_

_Karasuma's tear-filled blue eyes stared into Amon's gray ones as she tried her hardest to pull her hand free of his._

_"Let go."_

_"Stop crying."_

_"Let GO!"_

_"Stop crying."_

_"Why do you even care?" Karasuma sobbed._

_"Because you're my new partner," Amon alleged quietly. "And that means we're more or less responsible for each other's lives on hunts, and I don't want my life in the hands of a spoiled child."_

_Why you-"_

_Karasuma brought her left hand up and tried to smack Amon with it, but he moved his second hand up quicker and caught her wrist once more._

_"Stop!" Karasuma screamed at him._

_"You're not crying." Amon observed._

_"That's because I'm pissed off," Karasuma spat back._

_"Good," Amon said, letting go of both of her wrists. "Be pissed off on the hunt, and maybe you won't screw up."_

_He turned around to leave but Karasuma quickly ran and cut him off._

_"I'm not done with you!" she spat._

_"I'm done with you," Amon replied._

_"You are the biggest jackass I've ever met."_

_Amon said nothing, he only began walking once again. Karasuma grabbed his jacket and pulled him back around. "Don't ignore me!"_

_Amon pushed her back and the girl fell on the ground. She looked up at him with blue eyes full of angry tears as he vanished through the doorway._

"You were right, Amon. I was a spoiled child then. If it hadn't been for what you said to me that day, and my anger at you, I never would have - Stop it Miho."

Miho Karasuma, now nineteen, sighed and rolled over in her bed. The azure sheets around her became tangled and crumpled as she moved around, trying to push away the feelings that had been slowly growing for five years. She had come home from the store only to find that Nagira was, unfortunately, right.

She hated feeling this way; she hated reliving the hunt for Charles Calypso in her mind every night since she had found out that David Rica had been under Calypso's service. She hated the fact she still had feelings for Amon even after they had both agreed to forget the past.

She sighed. Amon had been right about her five years ago.

And Nagira had been right about her an hour ago.

Why the hell was that family always so damn right?

Karasuma rolled back over, pulling the large burgundy comforted up over her bare arms and burying her head into her pillow, trying the best to ignore the memories of five years ago and of this evening.

Then the phone rang. She cursed very fluently and shot her hand out to grab it on the nightstand next to her, and brought it up to her ear as she rose in bed with a rude jolt.

"Hello?" Karasuma answered bitterly.

"Miho, Haruto and I were out at Harry's, and his father showed up, and tried to shoot him, and I hit him with the car, and I tried to kill him, but I couldn't, and now he's-"

"Yurika, calm down!" Karasuma shouted over the frantic sobs of Doujima on the telephone at her ear. "Say it again, slowly this time."

"Sakaki's father is a witch, and now Sakaki's hunting him without any help or Orbo and he hates me now, and he's going to get himself killed, and you have to help him Miho because you're strong and you know what to do, and I need help because you know I'm such a screw up and-"

"Where are you?" Karasuma asked quietly, her voice becoming warm and friendly, trying to disguise her own bad day and this new bad news.

"Outside my apartment."

"Okay, I'll be there in twenty minutes."

"Arigato, Miho."

"Don't move, I'll be right over."

Karasuma's fingers shot over to the phone and pressed down the twin white nubs that hung it up. A moment later, once the dial tone returned, she quickly dialed the number Amon had left for emergencies. There was a series of three brief rings, then the dark hunter who had been on her mind since her conversation with Nagira answered the phone quietly.

"Amon."

"Amon, its Miho. Something's going on, I think Sakaki's in danger."

There was a pause. "What happened?"

"I can't really be sure, but Yurika said it had something to do with his father."

A second pause. "Where?"

"Doujima's apartment."

"I'll meet you there."

"Alright. Arigato, Amon."

The darkest hunter hung up.

**----**

Zaizen sat in his office at the Factory, his tired gray eyes scanning over page after page of information on his "new" Orbo as it appeared on the screen before him.

Of course, the problem with the Orbo was already fixed. Zaizen knew it wasn't serious. He hadn't really cared about the fact that the Orbo had failed on a hunt with those damned witches they used as hunters. He would use this time with only the Factory hunting to test his new human Orbo; Orbo able to be used by humans. It was a wonderful concept. Simply wonderful.

The phone rang, and Zaizen quickly picked it up and brought it to his ear. The quiet, raspy voice of Kichiro Wantanabee spoke from the other end of the receiver.

"Mr. Zaizen?"

"You're not supposed to call me at the Factory." Zaizen spoke quickly, his voice full of anger and anxiety.

"You said I could kill my son," Kichiro snapped back. "And he escaped."

"It's not my fault you're incompetent."

Kichiro laughed a sickening, sour laugh that sounded like the taste of salt. "You don't want me as an enemy, Mr. Zaizen. If you want my information on SOLOMON's movements, then you'll make sure I get Haruto Sakaki dead."

Zaizen paused for a moment, and then sighed. "Fine. I'll meet you at the usual place tomorrow. Midnight. We'll discuss this then. Now what do you have on SOLOMON?"

Kichiro's salty laugh echoed again. "I'll tell you part of the information now, and the rest after Sakaki is dead."

"Deal." Zaizen said quickly.

"The agent in charge of your assassination is a . . . Mr. David Rica."

Zaizen frowned. "Are you playing me for a fool? David Rica was killed; he was a traitor to SOLOMON."

The salty laugh was back. "David Rica was already dead three months ago. Do you really think SOLOMON's scientist couldn't enhance the cheap craft spells already on Rica? And he did not betray SOLOMON, he betrayed the STN. There is a difference, my friend."

Zaizen heard these words and wondered if he should believe them or not. "Why would SOLOMON keep Rica on their team after what happened three months ago?"

"Because he's a crazy bastard who wants to murder everyone connected with the STN of Japan, and they're looking for someone who can murder you. If this person gets caught, they need to not be connected to SOLOMON. Who better than a blood thirsty traitor?"

Zaizen cursed. "Fine. Where is Rica now?"

"He's recruiting two police officers, an American and an Englishman. I'll tell you the rest of what I know once my son is dead."

"Fine, tomorrow. Midnight."

"A pleasure doing business with you, Mr. Zaizen."

With one more salty laugh Kichiro hung up, allowing Zaizen to brood over the information he had just received, and to wait impatiently for the information still to come.

**----**

Michael was still having problems with his arm as he and Robin moved throughout the museum looking for Jyou.

The lights refused to show themselves, despite the fact they were all turned on and there was nothing wrong with the fuses. It was like every light bulb in the museum had burnt out. Of course this was just another sign of what Michael feared the most. Still, many candles had been found and lit; they now lined the floor, illuminating an eerie walkway.

Robin had her arms enclosed around Michael's right one as they walked next to one another. She, of course, had not forgiven herself for lighting Michael on fire. Michael didn't blame her at all, but that was beside the point. She felt now how Sakaki had felt four months ago when he had accidentally put an Orbo bullet in her chest.

The pair of young lovers found the aged security guard standing in a corner, trying his best to reassure the wife of the man who had been murdered that everything would be alright. She didn't want to hear that, and tried to shoo him away.

"Michael," The gray haired guard said, spotting the youth. "There you are. I was worried."

It was clear from Jyou's face that he wanted to know what the hell was going on. The dim blue eyed guard cast a frightened look at Robin, who hung her head somberly, but Michael hugged her reassuringly with his good arm.

"Jyou, I need a phone. I have to contact the STN-J," Michael said at once.

He blinked. "The STN-J? What for?"

"I work there Jyou," Michael explained quietly. "So does Robin. I can't go into any more detail; I just need to contact them."

Jyou shook his head. "Phones aren't working right; the wall phones, cell phones, no one can get a call out."

Michael cursed. This was yet another sign of what he was dreading worst of all. Another sign that the man who had appeared and stolen the sword, the man who attacked Robin and killed a rich old man was in fact Rick Richards.

"CAMPBELL!"

Michael was shaken out of his thoughts by the cry. He and Robin both spun around quickly while Jyou let out a groan, and several of the rich people around them screamed and ran. The figure was back. The sword was still in the cold, dead hand of Rick Richards.

"Damn! The gun won't work Jyou," he called behind him, where the security guard had been taking feeble aim at the figure. They were the only three left standing there now; everyone else had run for the imaginary safety of the shadows behind them.

The figure with the sword gave another cry and ran forward, waving the rapier above his head with a wild eyed stare. Michael sighed, he had to be sure. He had to be sure of what they were fighting.

"Robin, do you trust me?" Michael asked quietly, but quickly.

"Of course I do!"

"Then torch me."

At first, Robin looked as if she didn't understand, but the look in Michael's sky blue eyes told the entire sad request in a way she couldn't misinterpret. She shook her head defiantly as the rapier-waving maniac drew closer.

"There's a fire extinguisher on the wall, just torch me quickly! I have to test something."

"No Michael!" she nearly shouted.

"I thought you trusted me."

Robin shook her head. "Don't ask me to kill you."

Michael smiled. "I'm not. I'm just asking you light me on fire. Robin, I will never leave you, you have to trust me."

Robin was crying, but she knew she had to obey him; she had no choice. She gave the hacker a tearful look, but he only smiled at her. Wishing she could do it with her eyes closed, but knowing that was impossible, Robin sighed and tilted her head to the right as bright orange flames jumped up from the floor and onto Michael's body.

The sword-wielding figure, which had been only feet from them, suddenly vanished into thin air once again with a cry of pain. Or maybe it was Michael's cry of pain; Robin could not tell.

Michael was now on his knees screaming as flames engulfed his body like they had engulfed so many witches in the past. Robin quickly grabbed the fire extinguisher and aimed it, squeezing the handle rapidly. At first she thought she had done it wrong, but after the second try she knew.

The extinguisher was empty.

**-------------------**


	6. Are You Sure You Trust Me?

**Witch Hunter Robin  
False Echoes  
  
Chapter VI – Do You Trust Me? (Pt. II)**

**  
Disclaimer**: You know by now I don't own **Witch Hunter Robin®**, which belongs to **Sunrise® **and **Sci-Fi® Channel**. You know this already.Nor do I own the song _False Echoes_; I just borrowed its title.  
  
Storyline, Plot, **Kenny** **Avery©**,** Roger Williams©**, **David** **Rica©** and **Kichiro Wantanabee©** are mine.****

**   
Author Notes**:

**Kanno** made a good point last chapter with a review of something I should have made a bit clearer.

When Kichiro said that SOLOMON and the STN are two different things, he didn't mean completely. He was talking about the SOLOMON Headquarters, which as we all know is tricky and evil. You see, they know David Rica is a traitor to then STN and indirectly to SOLOMON HQ, but the HQ is much higher up than the STN, so they really don't give a damn if he's a traitor or not.It'll all become clear later.  
  
Oh and **drake220**, I don't know what Amon's craft is. They never reveal it during the course of the show, so as far as I know no one except for the creator of WHR knows what his craft is.

**----------------**

The horrors of the next few seconds of Robin Sena's life were so bad that no words could describe them.

Robin's petite fingers squeezed the fire extinguisher in her hands, again and again, but to no avail. The burning flames that engulfed Michael were too big and too bright, and the fire extinguisher was empty from the sweet white foam that would save the life of her lover.

Then Jyou, the night guard who had been a friend of Michael's now dead father, raised his gun and fired it into the side of the extinguisher. There was a moment of pause in which nothing but the screams of Tai Lee's son could be heard, and then the extinguisher exploded with such a fury that it sent Robin falling backwards into the wall.   
  
A great sea of pearly white foam shot everywhere, covering the burning hacker, his grief stricken lover, and the aged but still sharp guard who sat on his knees. The flames, once so bright and yellow, burning with malice as their evil orange tongues licked away the life of Michael Lee, had been destroyed the second the freezing foam had splattered them from the side.

Robin was against the wall now, her own body covered in the same snow-white blast of foamy bubbles that covered the two men beside her. She could not see, as the pearly essence blocked out her emerald orbs of sight, but her ears could hear the hoarse, raspy sound of Michael's breathing, coming in short and sourly.

"Robin—"

The hacker managed to allow the name of his lover to slip out of his mouth before he collapsed onto the floor, his body covered in burns and welts, his skin charred and barren; his clothes covered in soot and nearly burnt off. Robin did not move nor did she not try to wipe away the bitter-cold foam that pierced her skin like knives. She just sat against the wall, sobbing quietly under the icy sheet of bubbles.

"Michael."

**----**

By the time Miho Karasuma arrived at the parked red car, its twin doors still wide open from Sakaki's doing, Doujima had finished crying.

Doujima had gone from feeling horrible and crying a river of salty-sweet tears, to sitting in the front seat with a blank expression on her face. Doujima made no recognition as Karasuma approached the car slowly holding a gun in her hand. Of course the gun wasn't for Doujima. It was just a safety measure since Karasuma still didn't quite know what had happened.  
  
"Miho." Doujima said offhanded in a dreamy voice without twisting her head.

"Yurika, are you alright?"  
  
"No." Doujima responded in that same dreamy voice. "Sakaki. He's in danger. Won't you help him?"

Karasuma walked closer to the car to see that the blonde girl who had called her was sitting with a blank face, the pink cell phone that doubled as a key chain in her hand and silent tears rolling down her face. The red leather purse that Sakaki had given to her as a gift only weeks previous was hanging limply over her arm.

Karasuma reached into the car and helped Doujima out, who seamed to have lost all ability to move on her own. Once Doujima was standing on the cold, damp, black streets, the same streets that Sakaki had vanished down, she collapsed into Karasuma's arms and began to sob once more.

"He hates me." She cried quietly. Karasuma hushed the younger woman as she held her close, trying her best to both keep Doujima calm, and keep a grasp of the situation."Sakaki doesn't hate you. I've seen the way he looks at you."  
  
"He hates me now!" Doujima snapped. "I couldn't kill his dad Miho. I couldn't do it. I remembered, I remembered Rica. . . "  
  
"Shh." Miho said firmly but in gentle voice. "You're fine. We'll find Sakaki and everything will be fine."  
  
"No, it won't."

Karasuma's eyes shot to the right where a man she had never seen stood. He wore an overlarge brown jacket and an ugly fedora hat. Doujima screamed and pushed away from Karasuma, but the redhead reached out and held the younger girl back firmly.  
  
"Oh? What's this? I thought you didn't want to kill me?" Kichiro smirked and cackled in his horrible salty laugh.

"Fuck you!" Doujima screamed as she tried to wiggle free of Karasuma's grasp. Kichiro only began to laugh more and more in that salty, high pitched voice of his that made both girls sick to their very stomachs. Karasuma slipped her left arm around Doujima's waist, keeping her in place, and with her right she lifted the gun she had slipped into her pocket earlier and aimed it at Kichiro.

"Sakaki's mother was feisty like you." Kichiro chuckled in a salted manor. "And I killed her like the bitch she was."

Karasuma fired three shots from her gun towards the disgruntled dad, but Kichiro's craft powers kicked in and stopped the bullet before they had even come halfway between Karasuma and himself. Karasuma swore and Kichiro laughed even harder.

Doujima stopped struggling to free herself of Karasuma's grasp and went limp, hanging in the redhead's arm like the leather purse hung at her own shoulder. Slowly the blonde's hand reached down inside the purse and began to dig quietly for something.

Meanwhile, Karasuma fired three more shots, not thinking they could actually hit the enemy, but hoping to buy some more time for her and for Doujima to think of an idea to escape from this salty laughing foe.

"Baka!" Kichiro spat in his saltiest voice ever. "I am a Telekinetic Craft Master! Behold my entire splendor!"

Kichiro narrowed his dark eyes, clenching his yellow-toothed mouth into a thin smirk, as his full craft was unleashed. Karasuma held her ground at first, not sure what was happening and knowing it was impossible to escape with a limp Doujima clinging to her arm.   
  
Suddenly Karasuma realized she wasn't the target as the red car beside her that belonged to Doujima shot into the air like a bottle rocket. Once the car was so high it was hanging above the street lamps it began to vibrate horrible and shake like a man having a horrid seizure. A moment later the car began to crush inside, bending and breaking. Tiny chucks of red hood and engine parts fell to the street below around Karasuma, but the rest of the car was crushing inwardly.

"You see? You see my splendor! And you think you can match this great power!?"  
  
Suddenly Doujima was no longer limp. The blonde, who had been digging in her purse non-stop since she gave up struggling, took this chance to push Karasuma backwards and onto the ground as she ran forward, dropping her purse as she pulled a small metal letter opener out of it. Kichiro spotted her running over the cold and damp ground, flailing the letter opener above her head like a tiny sword and moving at full speed to stab Kichiro's exposed neck.

The craft master shook his head, sending the crumpled car flying into the pitch-black night sky as he shot his hand out. Doujima was now at his side, raising the letter opener for a stab into the disgruntled dad's jugular, but Kichiro's hand caught the blonde's wrist and he began to laugh.

Doujima struggled against his grip but quickly he shot his second hand upward around the girl's exposed neck and slammed her up against a wall. She dropped the letter opener but it froze in mid air and floated back up in the wake of Kichiro's craft. He spun around and threw Doujima down onto the pavement and she cried out in pain as she hit the stone.

"Sora tried to stab me." Kichiro said fondly, recalling his dead wife. "Several times. Of course she was just a human, not a witch. I stopped her always. And then I did this."

The letter opener shot down like a bullet and slashed across Doujima's pale cheek as it flew past her face and impaled itself into the stony ground behind her. Doujima screamed and shot her hands up to her face, clutching the now bleeding check. Kichiro laughed once again in his saltiest laugh ever.  
  
"It'll scar if I did it right. It'll remind you. And if you see my son before I find him, it'll let him know too."  
  
Kichiro laughed and then cast his eyes down to where Karasuma stood, slowly walking over towards the two.

"I shall let you live, Blondie, but only because I want my son to see your scarred face. Her, however, I do not need."

Kichiro narrowed his eyes and Karasuma instantly felt his craft covering her body like an invisible blanket of icy cold pain. She tried to move but could not; she knew it was going to be the end for her without Orbo.

And then the silent swish of an Orbo bullet being fired was heard from behind Kichiro. A second later, Kichiro screamed and jumped forward so much he almost landed in Doujima's lap. All eyes shot down the alleyway where a black car was parked, one of the doors open. And standing before that car was Amon.

Amon. Standing in all his glory, a shining green Orbo Cross across his chest and an Orbo gun in his hand as he stared down at Kichiro.   
  
"Damn you!" Kichiro screamed out, shooting his craft forward at Amon, but the green liquid filled cross only began to glow an eerie jade shade of light and Amon didn't make an expression as he fired five more Orbo bullets into Kichiro, who slumped backward on the ground out colder than ice.

"Doujima." Amon commanded quickly and emotionlessly. "Call the Factory."

Doujima blinked as she looked up, still covering her bleeding cheek with one of her now bloody hands, and she nodded silently to Amon as she looked around to find her cell phone. Amon walked passed her and towards Karasuma, who gave him a weak smile.

"What happened?" Amon asked silently."Sakaki took off, looking for this guy." Karasuma explained as best as she could, still unsure of all the details herself. "He found Yurika and I. Amon, Arigato. And how did you get Orbo?"

"I left Orbo with Yuji Kobari a long time ago, incase I couldn't get any at the Flat." Amon explained quickly and then proceeded to return to his own line of questions. "Why does Sakaki want to find him?"  
  
Karasuma sighed. "As far as I can tell, that's his father."  
  
Amon's eyes went wide and he swore.  
  
"What is it, Amon? What's wrong?" Karasuma asked.

"That man." Amon explained coldly. "That's Kichiro Wantanabee. He was David Rica's partner at SOLOMON."

**----**

"I'm sorry Miss, but the office is closed for the night."  
  
"You're still here." Touko spat bitterly.  
  
"Indeed I am." Nagira's redheaded secretary shot back, even more bitterness in her voice. "But I'm working late. The office is closed. Come back tomorrow."

The empty building that was Nagira Law Office was covered by the murky black shadow that came every day as the sun fell and the moon rose to take its majestic place. Touko and secretary were squaring off in a heated duel of words as Touko tried with all her might to find Nagira Syunji.

"Look, I have to see Nagira, it's really important—"  
  
"I don't care." Hana snapped, now becoming impatient. "We're closed, besides, Mr. Nagira isn't even in right now and –"  
  
"Touko, what are you doing here?"  
  
The two arguing women both shut up and spun to the right were Nagira stood, a cigarette in his mouth and an odd expression hugging his tired face. Hana narrowed her eyes in fury, but Touko looked extremely relieved to see the tired pachinko addict.  
  
"I need your help." Touko said very quickly before the secretary could interrupt the two of them.   
  
"What's Amon done now?" Nagira laughed. "Yeah, sure, come up to my office. Hana would you open the door?" He added to the redhead.

"You vanish all day long, leaving at least three clients disappointed, and making one of them find a new lawyer. But you can drag your butt back here at unholy hours of the night and then deal with people you find on the street?!"

"Open the door." Nagira repeated, his tempter rising. Hana glared at him but did as he asked.

The brown haired man walked down the dark hall silently, Touko at his heels the entire time. They finally reached his office, which was a pigsty, with cluttered paper and manila folders everywhere. Nagira pulled over a chair, pushed a box of papers off it, and motioned for Touko to sit down."So what happened?" He asked at last."Nagira, I need you to investigate something for me. Something that happened in New York two and a half years ago." Touko said silently. Just thinking of that day two years ago made her fill with a never-ending sadness.

"Well, I'm a lawyer not a private eye. And New York isn't exactly part of Japan. But for you, Touko-chan, I'll do it." Touko smiled warmly as he said this, and he laughed a hearty laugh before adding: "And just what is it you want me to investigate?"  
  
"You're investigating the disappearance of my daughter." Touko explained as calmly as she could.

**----**

The man was relatively young to have such power, but power he did have. Perhaps not as much power as some of his peers, some of the other members of the board, but he had more power than millions of people would ever dream of.

His office was square and dark; everything was a dark gray, brown, or black. Most of the office was empty save only a filing cabinet, a large metal desk, his leather swivel chair, and his computer on the wall. There were no windows in the man's room, only a large glass door at the front. Although it was glass, it was impossible to see through it. Only shadows could be seen through it.

And a shadow stood in the doorway now.

The door opened after a brief pause and Father Juliano Colegui entered the room, his aged stature was nothing less than legendary in SOLOMON. He carried with him an old black cane he used for walking and over his eyes were dark glasses.

"Father Juliano, this is a welcomed surprise."  
  
Juliano said nothing. Behind him a second man entered the room, and the face of the young man working in the office fell into a sour grin.   
  
"Father Juliano is here to ask you a few questions." The second man spoke solemnly; his face broke into an expression halfway between guilt and grief. The second man was even more known in SOLOMON than Father Juliano was, for the second man was the Head of SOLOMON, and in a way, the most powerful man on the face of the planet.

The young man behind the desk gave an innocent and all too fake smile up at the Head of SOLOMON and the aged priest who stood beside him.

"What did you do to David Rica?" Juliano asked at length.

The man behind the desk dropped the fake smile the second Rica's name was said. "I don't know what you mean. David Rica has been dead for three months."  
  
"David Rica." Father Juliano cut him off. "Was spotted in London's Heathrow Airport half an hour ago."

The man's face fell and he shook his head from side to side in a desperate attempt to lie to the aged Colegui.  
  
"I don't know anything about that."  
  
"Do not lie." Juliano's voice was like ice.

"I'm not!" The young SOLOMON employee cried desperately. "I know nothing about Rica!"

The head of the Witch Hunting network sighed from behind Juliano. The young man had gotten this job because of who he was – the son of the Head of SOLOMON – his son. And now it looked like the boy was turning traitor.

"My son. I'm sorry. If you are to lie, to protect a traitor like David Rica, then SOLOMON can no longer employ you. I can no longer employ you. I am sorry, my son."  
  
The Head of SOLOMON sighed and turned towards the glass door. He walked along the cold marble floors that were as black as his shoes and stopped just as his hand touched the icy knob.

"Father Juliano, my old friend, I must ask that you go to Japan. Find the man called Kichiro Wantanabee, he used to be Rica's partner, he may know what Rica is doing. Extract information from him, and then terminate him."

"Of course." Juliano said quietly.   
  
"Father!" The young SOLOMON employee bellowed towards the Head of Witch Hunting. The man simply shook his head at his son.

"You are no longer a Hunter, my son. You know what that makes you. Juliano, deal with this Witch, won't you?"

And without another word the Head of SOLOMON vanished through the door, leaving his son, who had now been branded as a Witch, alone with the World's Greatest Witch Hunter. Father Juliano Colegui shook his head somberly as he turned to the boy.

"A Witch must always be hunted." Juliano spoke gently.

Then the young boy screamed in pain when Juliano unleashed his craft.

**----**

Robin was still covered by the white foam as all of these events unfolded elsewhere. She was covered in the foam, crying over Michael's foam covered body as he tried to survive. She did not know that at this very moment her partner, Amon, was on his way to find Karasuma, only to find Kichiro Wantanabee. She was not aware that the man, who raised her, Juliano Colegui, was on his way to question a young SOLOMON employee who had turned traitor and would soon be on his way to Japan.

All she was aware of was the fact Michael was dying and nothing could save him.

The fifteen-year-old Witch Hunter sobbed quietly on her knees beside Michael's body, which was covered in hot burns and icy cold bubbles. It was then, for the first time in her life, that Robin felt pain like this.

He was going to die. The man she had fallen in love with. He was going to die because of her.

She had murdered Michael Lee.

"Robin."

Robin's emerald eyes, which had been covered by her tiny pale hands, shot open as Michael spoke in a raspy voice, like a man who lived without the ability to breathe but tried so hard to continue life anyway.

"Michael." She sobbed quietly. "I didn't, I'm sorry, I didn't know, I thought—"  
  
"Watch." Michael choked out in the raspy voice as sound came flying from his burnt lungs. "Watch."

Robin looked down without a clue what he meant. Watch? Watch what? Perhaps he meant the Night Watchman Jyou; perhaps he was trying to tell Jyou to kill Robin for what she had done to him. Of course, Robin should have known this was not the case at all, but in her state now she believed it. She didn't care if she was acting foolish or silly or childish, Michael was going to die and it was her fault.  
  
"Waaaaatch."

Michael lifted his arm which had been both burnt and frozen over the last few minutes and tried his best to point. Jyou shot forward to stop him, but Robin stopped the guard before he could. Michael was using his last few moments of life to tell her something, she had to know what it was.

Robin's eyes traveled along where Michael tried to point to, and she noticed where they were for the first time. They were just below the portrait of Michael Campbell, Rosalind, and Rick Richards. Robin's eyes shot down to the broken case where the ghostly figure had stolen the rapier earlier, and then she remembered.

_Inside that case was a bracelet, a rapier sword, and a pocket watch._

Robin did not understand why Michael wanted the watch, but she now knew what he meant and she quickly shot up and ran to the case. Her emerald eyes found the pocket watch lying in the case of broken glass beside the untouched bracelet. Quickly she grabbed the watch that was over one hundred years old and ran back down to Michael's side, the hallow echo of her feet could be heard all around them as she ran over the marble floors, trying not to trip over her black skirts.

"Me." Michael gasped as his words and his life began to waver.

Robin understood now and she reached down and placed the old pocket watch in Michael's torched hand as tears fell down her face. What did he want with this watch now, in his last moments on earth? Robin did not understand. She let go of the small watch, bringing her hand back up to her lap and staring down at the man she loved as he took his final breathes.

And then a flash of light as bright as the sun illuminated the entire building for a few short seconds, causing Jyou, the aged guard and the young Robin to close their eyes.

When Robin's eyes opened again she gasped.

Michael was still lying on the ground, but the burns and the extinguisher fluid was gone. His hair was cut in a different style and he wore a old blue suit that looked exactly like the one Michael Campbell had wore in the portrait above them.

"Well, what do you want first?" Michael asked as he turned his now perfectly-healed head to Robin. "The good news or the bad news?"

Robin stared in amazement as Michael's sky blue eyes stared into her bottle green ones with the same loving look they had carried for her since she had awoken to find him at her side after Sakaki had shot her four months ago.

"Well, I think you can guess the good news." Michael laughed as he looked down at the odd, out-dated British suit he now wore.

And then a hallow, evil voice shouted from somewhere in the shadows. "CAMPBELL!"

Michael sighed. "And now I think you know the bad news, too."

**----------------**


	7. The Changing of the Guard

**Witch Hunter Robin  
False Echoes  
  
Chapter VII – The Changing of the Guard**

**  
Disclaimer**: You know by now I don't own **Witch Hunter Robin®**, which belongs to **Sunrise® **and **Sci-Fi® Channel**. You know this already.Nor do I own the song _False Echoes_; I just borrowed its title.  
  
Storyline, Plot, **Kenny** **Avery©**,** Roger Williams©**, **Kichiro Wantanabee©**, **Rick Richards©**, **Michael Campbell©**, **Rosalind Nichols©** and **Mr. David Rica©** are mine.****

**------------------**

"Michael-"

"No time." Michael shot to his feet, which like the rest of him had now been completely healed, and moved his hand out to quickly grab Robin's petite arm. He began to pull her with him as his feet carried him away from the portrait of Rick Richard and the others, and down towards Jyou's office. Jyou himself was following along behind them with a slight moan.

Robin was so shocked at what was going on, wondering if perhaps she had missed something important, that she did not struggle as Michael pulled her across the marble floors and towards the door at the end of the artwork filled hall. Still in the shadows, screams of the scared rich folk could be heard, but Michael could not worry about them. Not now.

The figure of Rick Richards, waving the rapier around like a mad man, was now back. It was running after them calling out the name 'Campbell' all the while, and drawing ever closer. Michael was faster though. He quickly made his way into the room and swung around, causing Robin to trip and fall onto the floor. A second later, Jyou shot into the room like a bullet and Michael slammed the door shut just as Richards appeared.

The angry screams of the figure of a man who had lived and died over a hundred years ago were heard outside the room as he smashed the sword into the door; Robin wondered, as she pulled herself up, how long it would be before the door broke down.

"Sorry," Michael said suddenly, reaching a hand out for her. Robin, who had never before been this confused, merely stood without his help, and Michael felt a stabbing twinge of guilt. He sighed and turned away from her, staring at the door where a pounding could be heard from Rick's feet.

"Michael, what's going on?" Robin asked from behind him.

"The watch," Michael answered as he reached into his pocket and extracted the small gold pocket watch. It was a beautiful watch, gold, and engraved with tiny words that said _"To One Hell of A Cop"_. The watch had been given to Michael Campbell by none other than Rick Richards himself.

Michael Lee knew that because he now had all of his ancestor's memories.

"Michael Campbell, Rick Richards, and Rosalind Nichols were all Witches," Michael said as he turned around to face the woman he loved. "Richards and Campbell were the leading investigators on the Jack the Ripper case. Rosalind was one of Polly Nichols children; Polly was the Ripper's first victim.

Michael learned all of what he had just explained now the second he had touched the watch. Robin and Jyou just looked on in amazement as he spoke.

"Campbell and Richards instantly fell in love with Rosalind. Being the friends they were, they decided to flip a coin to see which of them would be allowed to court her. Richards won, and he tried to court her, until he found out she was pregnant with Michael Campbell's child. Richards backed off and let Rosalind and Campbell marry. But then, on their wedding night, Richards came to the door demanding to see Rosalind. Campbell tried to turn him away, and Richards killed his one best friend."

Michael could see these memories as clearly as he could remember the first time he'd kissed Robin; these memories were crystal clear in his mind. Of course that was because of the watch.

Robin sat in silence for a moment as Michael told the rest of the story. The orange-haired hacker stood facing the door, still in the navy blue suit that had appeared on him like magic when he had touched the watch. Her eyes watched him from where she sat on the metal fold-out chair at Jyou's desk, while Jyou himself was stuck inside the small mini-fridge in the corner of the room, a beer can in his hand.

"Michael," Robin said quietly as she stood and walked over towards him. "That's a horrible story, but right now I want to know how you survived. I . . . I almost. . ."

"Robin," Michael replied at once, turning around and taking her small hands in his own, intertwining their fingers just as she had done before. He was comforting her as she had after his nightmare.

The memories of the nightmare in which a bulky brown-haired man had called him 'Campbell', and Robin had died in his arms had not faded from Michael's memories, and in fact, he was horrified at the very idea. Of course in the dream they were in a room, not in a museum. And the man who had spoken to him was not Rick Richards.

Still, he couldn't worry about the dream now.

"Robin, Michael Campbell was a Witch. While he may have lived over a hundred years ago, he was still my ancestor. That makes me a Seed." Michael smiled at her as he kissed her cheek quietly, desperate to explain it to her. "I had to take a chance before. I knew that Rick Richards had imbued a false copy of his soul inside that sword. I thought Campbell might have done the same."

He paused as he tried to put this into words. "You see, Robin, Campbell and Richards made Echoes of themselves using the Craft and put them inside those items. Even once the Echo was made it continued to absorb their memories. Richards wanted to kill me because I'm Michael's descendant, and I had guessed that Campbell's Echo would wanted to help me, heal me, to stop Richards."

Robin pulled away and looked up at Michael's sky blue eyes as she processed this. Michael had guessed that the watch would save his life after she had nearly ended it. Suddenly, she became furious with the hacker and slapped him across the face. Michael was stunned, but Robin was even more surprised; she had never slapped anyone before.

"You! You made me light you on fire on the slim chance that a watch would save you?" Robin choked out.

Michael sighed. "No, Robin. I made you light me on fire because Rick Richards has a grudge against Michael Campbell. I'm Michael Campbell's decedent, which means that the grudge goes to me. Have you noticed that every time I'm in pain that ghost vanishes?"

Robin nodded quietly as tears filled her emerald eyes.

"I knew that if you put me in pain, he'd vanish. And I had to test the watch theory. It was a good plan, and it worked."

"Michael . . ." Robin mumbled, and Michael's eyes widened in surprise. It was a soft, but chilling voice, unlike any she had ever used. It was almost as if Robin were so angry that mere fury could not express it.

"Robin, I'm sorry. I know it was hard on you, but everything is okay now."

"No, it isn't," she said in a tone so far from everything being 'okay', that he instantly filled with dread. "If you had died, if your idea had failed, if I had _murdered_ you, do you know how I would have felt? Do you know what that would have done to me?"

Michael sighed and tried to hug her, but Robin pulled away, unable in the least to look at him. The hacker gave a great sigh as he comprehended the fact that he had made a massive mistake.

**----**

"Start damn you!"

Haruto Sakaki heard the words fly out of someone's mouth from somewhere to his right, and he realized at once that they were coming from Doujima's mouth. He knew that voice; he had heard it every day for months.

Sakaki was walking along the deserted back alleyways of the great streets of Tokyo as he wandered in circles, looking for the father he had always hated, and thinking about what would happen if he found him.

He had been able to buy a gun from a pawn shop down in the bad side of town, and he had it loaded inside his jacket. He had the gun ready for his father. The rookie was determined to kill Kichiro Wantanabee as soon as he saw him. He'd viciously murder his father. No. It wasn't murder, it was a righteous death. It was killing a killer.

And yet, instead of finding the father he hated, he found the woman he loved. After the first scream, Sakaki made his way cautiously in the direction the voice had come from, wondering what the blonde was yelling about now. Finally he found her, standing over Robin's vespa, kicking it angrily.

"Start you damn thing! I have to find Haruto!" She kicked it again, and then let out a cry of pain as her foot smashed painfully into the metal muffler. Sighing, she sat down on the seat. Sakaki couldn't help but smirk at her. That was, until he noticed her face.

It was the same beautiful face he had fallen in love with; the same soft skin, pale with a slight pinkish hue in her cheeks. The same deep, blue eyes that Sakaki could get lost staring into. The same nose that he had loved to poke and plant small kisses on the tip of whenever they were flirting in the back of a movie theater or on his bike.

But now, the face had an all-too-familiar slash on the right cheek that reminded him all too much of the scars his mother would sometimes get after she and his father had had a fight. Normally, he would have chalked it up to coincidence, if not for the fact he father was in town and angry.

"Yuri-chan?" he mumbled quietly, and the girl gave a huge jump as she turned around to face him. They stood for a minute under the silent nighttime sky before she ran towards him and threw herself into his arms, embracing him tightly.

He pulled away, still angry with her from before, but concern for her safety had overridden the anger for now. He moved his right hand up and touched her cheek, but she gave an "Oww!" and yanked back.

"It was him, wasn't it?" Sakaki asked quietly.

"Yeah," Doujima responded, not looking her boyfriend in the face as he called his father some names so dirty even HBO wouldn't allow them on TV.

"What happened?" Sakaki asked when he was done cursing his father.

"I called Miho after you left," she explained quietly, still not meeting his cobalt eyes with her own deeper, cerulean ones. "Well, Miho came and got me, but then he showed up. We tried to fight him, but he was too strong. He cut me and tried to kill Miho too."

Sakaki cursed again and closed his eyes. Karasuma was his partner, and, besides Doujima, was the most important person in the world to him. Karasuma had been like his older sister since he'd met her. Occasionally she got angry with him and told him off, but that only made her feel more like family.

"But it's okay," Doujima added quickly seeing the pain on Sakaki's face. "Because Amon came. Amon got him, Haruto."

Sakaki's eyes flashed open at this and stared at Doujima the second those words had been uttered. Got Him. Those words struck the hunter like an arrow. His father had been gotten; his father had been stopped.

"He's at the factory now. Your dad is gone, and he won't be back-"

"The factory?" Sakaki blurted out at once, ignoring everything else she had spoken and tried to speak after that word. "But-"

"Amon brought some Orbo with him," Doujima explained. "He's gone, Sakaki. That's all that matters, he's gone, and you didn't have to kill him."

Sakaki turned away from her and stared down at the eerie shadow the streetlight was casting on them. "I wanted to kill him."

Doujima made a small noise in her throat, and then she crossed over to stand next to Sakaki. When he turned his face to look at her, she slapped him harder than she'd ever slapped anyone before, even harder than she had slapped David Rica three months ago. Sakaki was stunned.

"Murder isn't as easy or as nice as the movies make it sound!" Doujima snapped bitterly. "Even if you kill someone you hate."

"But-"

"No buts, Haruto. I hated David Rica worse than anyone on the planet. Worse than _anyone_. And yet, not a day goes by where I don't regret killing him. Oh I'm glad I killed him; I'm glad I saved you and Robin. But I wish I could have done it without taking a life. Because Haruto, once you take someone's life, your own changes forever. It's the power of God, taking lives. And that's a power and a responsibility that no human should have."

Sakaki stood in silence as she spoke, tears once again forming in her eyes. She had vented her anger and frustration, and Sakaki felt his own vanishing as well. He couldn't stay mad. His father had been punished, and Doujima was still here. That was all that really mattered.

"Here," Doujima said suddenly, reaching into her pocket and pulling something out. To Sakaki's amazement it was the necklace; s silver chain, with a small, golden flower and a fake diamond in the center at its end. The necklace he'd bought for his mother on the day she died.

"What? How did you-"

"I took it out of your dad's pocket," she clarified. "I thought you might want it, so that the next time you go to your mom's grave, you can take her something better than roses."

Sakaki suddenly let it go; the hate, the anger, the pain. The feelings of horror he'd harbored since the death of his mother. He let it all go.

He would never forget his mother, and he couldn't, no matter how hard he would try, forget his father either.

But he would move on; he'd make a future without either of them.

A future with Doujima.

**----**

"Mr. Zaizen?"

Zaizen sat in his office, weary of work, and feeling that perhaps he would have another smoke and then call it a day, when his head scientist entered the office delicately. Zaizen sighed and turned the chair around.

"Any progress on Toudou's disk?" the gray haired man asked.

"No sir, that's not why I came to see you." The scientist hesitated.

"Oh. Well what is it?"

"The new Witch that was just brought in, he tested positive for Orbo extraction. Shall we begin?"

Zaizen nodded, but suddenly blinked and turned towards his computer. Typing up something quickly, he looked back up at the scientist, who, it appeared, had expected this and hadn't tried to move in the least.

"What new witch? We didn't have any hunts today." Zaizen's dark eyes shot up to the thin man in the white lab coat.

"Of course, sir," the scientist replied. "But Mr. Amon brought him in."

Zaizen's eyes widened with fury. "Amon? The STN-J is on a vacation, you know that!"

The scientist nodded somberly. "I know sir. But Amon caught a Witch and brought him in. We couldn't turn him away."

Suddenly, a look of grave understanding crossed Zaizen's aged face, and he sighed as he asked a question that he was dreading the answer to. "What is the Witch's name?"

The scientist fidgeted. "Kichiro Wantanabee, sir."

Zaizen cursed loudly and pounded his large fist on the cold table. The scientist sighed.

"I take it that as a no, then, for Orbo extraction?"

"Damn right it's a no!" Zaizen yelled in fury. "Bring Kichiro to me."

"Right away sir." The scientist smirked evilly as he slipped out the door, leaving the brooding Zaizen alone to continue to brood.

Silence engulfed the room like black engulfed the night, and every second Zaizen sat casting his gray eyes at the door was another second where he grew angrier. Finally, after a wait that had been only ten minutes, yet felt like ten days, the door opened and Kichiro Wantanabee walked in.

Kichiro was in a weak state; the Orbo had drained his powers, and he had been shot six times. He moved slowly, and staggered like a drunk. He walked towards the chair in front of Zaizen's desk, but before he could sit down Zaizen pounded his fist on the table again and made the witch jump back.

"Did I say you could sit?" Zaizen growled.

"No, but you did say none of your team would have the Orbo, you stupid prick," Kichiro responded with ice in his salty voice. He was weak in the body, but his mind was still strong.

"I did not foresee you screwing up so many times," Zaizen replied coolly. Kichiro cursed but Zaizen merely shook his head silently.

"Well, next time-"

"Next time?!" Zaizen snapped quickly as Kichiro tried to speak. "There is no next time, my simple friend. You're about to _die_, don't you understand that?"

Kichiro narrowed his eyes, but the craft did not work. Zaizen laughed; the Orbo was still burning inside Kichiro's system, and his craft was useless for hours more.

"Baka." Zaizen reached into his desk and pulled out a small, silver handgun. Kichiro's entire body went lax, and he realized there was no escape for him.

"Wait, I still have information on Rica," Kichiro spoke quickly.

Zaizen sighed. "Tell me everything you know."

"No," Kichiro replied bravely. "Once my son is-"

"Tell me what you know now," Zaizen repeated. "And I'll let you live to kill Sakaki."

"What reassurance do I get that you won't shoot me the second I tell you?" Kichiro asked in a whisper.

"None." Zaizen smiled. "But you either tell me now, or you die now. Which is it?"

Kichiro sighed and decided to tell him.

**-------------------------**


	8. Echoes of the Past

**Witch Hunter Robin  
False Echoes  
  
Chapter VIII – Echoes of the Past**

**  
Disclaimer**: You know by now I don't own **Witch Hunter Robin®**, which belongs to **Sunrise® **and **Sci-Fi® Channel**. You know this already.Nor do I own the song _False Echoes_; I just borrowed its title.  
  
Storyline, Plot, **Kenny** **Avery©**,** Roger Williams©**, **Kichiro Wantanabee©**, **Rick Richards©**, **Michael Campbell©**, **Rosalind Nichols©** and **Mr. _David Rica_©** are mine.****

**-------------------**

How in the world Sakaki and Doujima managed to get all the way from the dark, damp street corner under the silvery moon's single, beady eye, and all the way back to the equally dark and damp alley where her apartment lay, while all the while kissing one another, was beyond both of them.

Finally Sakaki's prized motorcycle arrived outside Doujima's apartment, and the pair of young teens climbed off. Their feet passed over the very spot that Kichiro had stood only half an hour ago as they arrived on the small stone steps outside the oak door of the brick building that housed Doujima's apartment.

Doujima's back collided with the door of the building, slightly painfully, as the kissing began once again. Sakaki, who had once been furious beyond all comprehension at the blonde, was now kissing her lips with a hunger beyond any he had had for revenge against his empty shell of a father.

It couldn't really be called kissing; it was more trying to devour one another's mouths entirely. Like a stunt on Fear Factor in which you had to eat a frozen cow tongue, but the tongues weren't frozen, and they weren't cows'.

Lips connected with lips, hands roamed over bodies, and neighbors stared at the whole thing.

It took Doujima a moment to notice her eighty-five year old neighbor down the hall standing at the bottom of the steps. She wore an ugly maroon dress, had matted gray hair, and a leathery handbag hung from her arm. Her aged eyes behind horn-rimmed glasses were popping out and staring at the teens.

"Haruto, stop!" Doujima hissed as her sapphire eyes shot down to the little old lady.

Sakaki turned his head for a moment, observed the lady, and then shrugged. "So?"

Doujima glared at him. "So? So there's an old lady watching us!"

Sakaki gave a small groan. "She's old, Yuri-chan; she doesn't have much to live for. We may as well make a reason for her to exist, eh?"

Doujima flashed him a sly smile, and nodded her head. Sakaki was filled with joy, until she spoke. "You want to give the old lady a reason to live? Then maybe you should sleep with _her_."

And before he could speak, Doujima had shimmied out from under his arms, opened the old oak door, sped inside, and closed it tightly. Sakaki stood in mute amazement at how stupid he truly was.

"I'm ready if you are," the old woman said suddenly from behind him. Sakaki screamed and pounded on the door loudly.

"Doujima!"

There was a laugh from the other side. "What's wrong, I thought you were with Mrs. Kinoto?"

The old woman spoke again from behind him. "When I take my teeth out, I can give one hell of a blow-"

"DOUJIMA OPEN THE DAMN DOOR!"

The door gave a click as it unlocked, and Sakaki hurried through it to the sounds of Doujima laughing. Inside, Doujima was leaning against her own apartment door; laughing so hard tears were streaming down her pale cheeks. The tears stung at the large, slashing cut that had been made by Kichiro, but she was laughing too hard to notice.

"You're evil," Sakaki spat.

"No," Doujima finally replied as her mirth died down; she wrapped her arms around Sakaki's shoulders, staring into his cobalt eyes with her deep cerulean ones. "If I were evil, I'd say 'cold shower'."

Sakaki grinned back, kissed her once on her lips, and was going to kiss her again when an annoyed "_Hem, Hem_" came from behind them, and they turned to see the old woman glaring at them.

"Oh, Haruto-kun, your girlfriend's back."

"Shut up," Sakaki said firmly as he opened the door to Doujima apartment. And the two disappeared inside, leaving the old woman alone.

**----**

Robin wasn't speaking to Michael anymore.

It was by far the most childish thing the fifteen-year-old craft-master had done since she arrived in Japan, and the most childish thing she'd done since she was seven, in fact. Still, it worked.

Robin was slumped in a corner of Jyou's office; she had decided to get some sleep since 'someone' (as she was referring to Michael now), had announced that he needed to hack into his files at Raven's Flat to learn how to defeat a undead echo, and they may be here overnight.

Her petite form was buried beneath her deep, burgundy coat, and her tired face rested on a small pillow, like the kind you find on an airplane, that Jyou had given her. She had thanked him happily, muttered a goodnight to 'someone', and tried her best to let sleep have her.

The floor was icy cold, the pillow itched her face, and she was uncomfortable in the black nun's skirt that covered her body, but she really had no choice in any of those things. She would have heated the floor a bit to remove the chill, but the memories of Michael screaming as fires danced on his skin were horrible.

Robin closed her eyes as the tears fell. She cried silently, but she still cried; she was furious with Michael. True, his plan had worked out, he was alive, and she was not angry because he had made her light him on fire. She was not even angry because she could have killed him. She was angry because she knew she could never be with him now.

Every time she looked at him, or heard his name, or even used her craft, she thought of Michael burning, Michael dying. She hated that thought, because she loved Michael. She loved him, and yet she had already made up her mind to break up with him when she awoke.

She loved him, but she could not be _in_ love with him anymore.

**----**

**Later . . .**

**----**

Sakaki was shaken out of his sleep by the sound of someone pounding on a door. It wasn't Doujima's door, it sounded like the neighbor's across the hallway.

"Hey, Yuri-chan, did you hear that?" Sakaki looked down to where Doujima was snuggled into his chest, sleeping peacefully. He reached down and shook her softly, his ears still listening for any sound of pounding.

"Mmm?" Doujima murmured quietly to show she was listening to what her boyfriend was saying, while at the same time showing she was asleep and couldn't care less about any pounding doors.

Then the explosion was heard.

"Shit!"

Doujima was wide awake now, as the sound of a bomb going off was heard clearly from the hallway. Both of the young teens quickly shot out of bed and went for their guns, which were buried somewhere in the small pile of clothes at the foot of the bed.

Then, there was pounding on their door. Sakaki found his gun buried beneath his trousers and raised it, aiming it at the door. Doujima, who couldn't find her gun, simply ducked down behind Sakaki and glared at the pounding door.

Then, it burst open, and Kichiro Wantanabee stood in front of them, holding in his massive ex-football player arms an M-16 machine gun, an invention of the Americans during Vietnam. It was quite deadly.

"Thought I'd find you here." Kichiro laughed in his saltiest voice as he smirked, showing those horrible yellow teeth. His dark eyes scanned over the half-naked teens and the one gun between them, and he grinned even more as he raised the machinegun.

Sakaki was in a bit of a trance at first as his father clicked back the large gun and aimed it, and Doujima herself could not move. Neither of them believed it was Kichiro who stood in their doorway, behind him the apartment across the hall was smoking and burning.

"I got the wrong apartment," Kichiro laughed. "But I shall still get you!"

He opened fired with the gun, and Sakaki screamed as the bullets went sailing towards them, whistling their deadly cry in the air as they zoomed for the kill. Squeezing his eyes shut, Sakaki clenched his entire body. When his eyes finally opened, over thirty bullets were suspended in mid-air just in front of him.

He took one look at the bullets, and they fell harmlessly to the ground. Kichiro cursed.

"Damn it! I didn't expect you to awaken," Kichiro growled.

"I awoke three years ago," Sakaki muttered quietly. "I just don't use my powers because they remind me of your ugly ass."

Kichiro glared and narrowed his eyes. "Baka."

A second later, Doujima's TV set, which lie on a dresser in front of the bed, shot off the ground and up into the air. Sakaki twisted his head and the dresser beneath the TV shot straight up so fast it smashed the TV set into the ceiling before Kichiro could launch it.

"Not bad." Kichiro flashed his salty grin.

"No, bad is those teeth, dad. I mean it's called a toothbrush, buy one." Sakaki grinned sarcastically. A second later, he narrowed his eyes and the welcome mat which Kichiro stood on shot out from under him and caused him to fall down, landing on his back.

"Let's go!" Doujima called from behind him as she dashed out of the house, pulling on her dark STN-J coat over her small, light blue nightgown. Sakaki nodded, grabbing his own coat and running over his father's body as they ran into the hallway.

The teens ran from the house and jumped onto Sakaki's motorbike as he revved up the engine and began to speed away from the apartment complex. He could have, of course, shot his father, but he did not.

Doujima had convinced him not to take a life. He had promised her he wouldn't kill, and he would never break a promise to her.

The motorcycle sped off down the road, but only minutes later as they continued onward, they heard shots behind them. Turning their heads, they saw Kichiro, on a black motorcycle of his own that bore the STN-J crest across its windshield.

"STN?" Sakaki blinked as he read. "How the hell did he get an STN bike?"

"Zaizen," Doujima muttered to herself.

"What?" Sakaki asked, looking down at the blonde who road behind him, clutching his waist.

"Haruto, he must have escaped from the Factory and stole some gear."

Sakaki cursed as they rode on down the busy streets at two in the morning, half naked except for boxers and a coat, with his crazy father chasing them.

**----**

"Got it!"

Michael's excited cry woke up both Robin and Jyou. Robin was still in the corner, beneath her coat, when his voice woke her from her nightmares. Of course, she saw herself burning him once again, but she couldn't wake up no matter how hard she tried. And, of course, in the dream there was no watch.

Jyou had passed out in a chair in the corner. He was old, and sleep came easy to him after a day as extreme as this one. His old blue eyes and Robin's young emerald ones were now focused on Michael.

"Robin." Michael spoke quietly, without looking at her. He knew she was mad with him. "I need your help."

"What do you need, Michael?" Robin asked in a quiet, shy voice he had not heard her use since they had first met. It was the voice of a stranger, not the woman he loved. Michael sighed and bit his lip.

"If you can burn away Rick Richard's portrait, it should destroy his echo."

Robin sat silently for a moment. "Michael?"

"Yes?"

"What about the echo in the watch?"

There was a moment of pause in which nothing but the quiet breathing of the three could be heard, broken only by the distant shouts of 'Campbell!' from the other side of the door.

"The echo in the watch used up its power to save me. Nothing should change."

"Should?" Robin's voice was no longer hallowed and empty, no longer shy. Her passion was back, but not her passion for their love, her passionate anger. Her eyes glared at Michael. "So if I do this, there is a chance you die?"

Michael closed his sky blue eyes, refusing to look at the young girl by his side. At length, the seventeen-year-old hacker spoke. "Yes, there is a chance I may die. But if we don't do something soon, all the people in this museum will die, and we will too."

Robin bit her lower lip and stared down at her lap. She couldn't believe that she had to destroy the portrait when there was a clear chance Michael would die. She sighed. True, she was mad at him, and true, any chance of a romantic relationship they ever had was now gone, but she still couldn't stand to think of a world without him.

"Robin, you have to." Michael's gentle, but firm hands moved down and rested on her shoulders. She tilted her head up to stare at his own where he sat in the rolling chair. Jyou's office computer, as old as it was, was now hacked into the STN's files.

"Michael . . . I can't." She spoke quietly.

Michael's lips found her forehead. "Robin. I promised you something before. I'm going to keep that promise; I'll never leave, because I love you."

Robin was silent. Her eyes were full of tears once again, and all at once she buried her face in Michael's chest and began to weep openly for the first time in a long time. Michael's arms slipped from her shoulders down to around her back, and held her tightly.

"Promise me, Michael." She spoke quietly into his black shirt. "Promise me you won't die."

Michael sighed. "I can't do that."

Robin sighed. "Michael-"

"Robin," he cut her off. "Every day you go on a Witch Hunt I worry about you. Every second you're out there, in danger, I'm afraid. Every minute you're not in my arms, I feel fear. But you have a job to do, and so do I. This isn't about us. If we don't do something, a lot of people will die. This is bigger than us."

Robin closed her eyes tightly.

"I'll do it." She spoke softly at length.

"Arigato. Arigato to Ai Shiteru. (Basically means Thanks and I love you.)

Robin said nothing; she just sat on the floor quietly, tears still burning her cheeks. Michael sighed.

"Alright, here's the plan."

**----**

**A Few Minutes Later . . .**

**----**

The echo of Rick Richards was standing about a hundred feet from Jyou the guard's door, his long rapier in hand and his eyes, a color darker than black, still glaring. Occasionally he'd yell 'Campbell!', and then wave his sword for a while.

Then all at once, the door opened and Michael walked out. He held in his hand Jyou's gun, and on his face was the look of a man in pain. Richards grinned and waved his sword, shouting the name of Michael's ancestor.

"Yes, Campbell, right," Michael spoke back. He raised the gun and brought it up to his side, pressing the edge of the gun barrel to the side of his stomach. Richards ran forward, waving his sword like a mad man, and Michael pulled the trigger.

The gun went off, shooting a bullet out, which grazed across Michael's skin, tearing it and causing blood to flow at once. The second the blood hit the air, Richards screamed and vanished.

"GO!" Michael yelled as he ran, tearing off towards a room labeled 'Feudal Era Dynasty'. A second later, Robin took off like a bullet out of the guard room, a walkie-talkie in her hand and her glasses on her face. Jyou followed last, a walkie-talkie in his own hand, following Michael.

A second later, Richards was back, his long sword waving once again, and he ran, ignoring Robin, and following Michael and Jyou to the Feudal Japan branch of the museum.

"CAMPBELL!"

Richards's eyes scanned the room as he looked for Michael. The cowering aged security guard was hiding behind a row where Samurai armor was displayed. The many body armors and helmets, along with Katanas, lined the back row of the room.

And standing in the middle of the row of armor, was a large red samurai outfit, complete with a mask modeled after a youkai's head. And wearing that red youkai samurai suit was Michael Lee, a katana in his hand.

"You want to wave swords around?" Michael grinned as he lifted the Katana. "Let's dance."

"CAMPBELL!" Richards bellowed as he waved his rapier.

"Lee," Michael grinned back as he stepped off the Samurai rack and walked slowly towards the grinning fiend before him.

Richards ran forward, and Michael slashed out with his sword; unfortunately Michael knew nothing about sword fighting, and he missed Richards completely. Richards, however, was able to slash his katana across Michael's back, cutting the armor and grazing Michael's skin.

"Cheap Samurai armor," Michael muttered. "Probably Chinese."

He rolled over on the ground as Richards brought the rapier up for a second swing. Jyou shook his head and spoke into the walkie-talkie.

"Robin, hurry up!"

Michael shot up off of the ground, running as quickly as he could, but not quickly enough as the rapier flew and slashed the back of the youkai helmet mask he wore, causing it to break and fall off.

"Why does this armor suck so much!?" Michael yelled as he ran into the main hall of the museum.

"It's four hundred years old!" Jyou called back.

Michael was in the main corridor now, near the front door; he held the Katana awkwardly. Richards walked out with his rapier and charged, screaming 'Campbell!' once again. Michael moved the Katana up, blocking the thinner blade in a horrible fashion, but saving his life.

"CAMPBE-AHHHHH!"

Suddenly flames engulfed Richards's body. He dropped the rapier to the ground as his body burnt upwards. There was a second's pause before Michael looked down to see that the only trace of Richards was a burnt, hundred year old slab of painting on the ground as it turned to ash.

Michael turned around as Robin appeared. Her eyes were full of worry, but Michael was alive and well. She ran out, a tiny bracelet in her hand. Michael recognized it as Rosalind Nichole's bracelet, and she handed it to him.

"What's this for?"

Robin spoke softly. "I thought that it might have one of those echoes in it, too. So maybe if you were hurt, it could save you again."

Michael smiled sweetly, and wrapped his arms around her as he dropped the bracelet into his pocket. "I love you Robin."

Robin remained quiet. She sighed and buried her head into his shoulder. "Michael . . ."

Michael sighed. He had expected this. "Robin, do you really want to throw away everything we have together because of one mistake?"

"No," Robin said quickly. "But I don't have a choice."

Michael's lips found her forehead, and worked their way down to her own. At first she did not return the kisses, but after the fourth time his lips pressed to hers without any repayment, she kissed him back. The fifth time, she met his lips and they kissed quietly. The sixth and seventh times, she was doing most of the kissing.

And then the lights came on; the doors and windows all opened up once again. People, who had been hiding in the dark, gave cheerful cries, and Jyou could be heard yelling in joy amongst them. Robin and Michael ignored all of that as their lips met for the eleventh time, kissing each time with a growing hunger.

And then, the screaming started once more. Michael and Robin broke apart in time to see the motorcycle come flying through the now open front door . . .

**----**

**Five Minutes Ago . . .**

**----**

Sakaki and Doujima both exchanged their share of cursing as they swerved in between the many cars on the road. Even at two in the morning Tokyo was crowded, and motorcycle driving was nearly impossible on these streets.

Sakaki revved up the engine, and they sped forward, dodging between two taxi cabs as they ran a red light. Behind them, Kichiro wasn't being as nice about his driving, using his craft to smash the sides of cars as he drove between them.

"We need a plan!" Doujima called to her boyfriend.

"I know that!" Sakaki shot back angrily as he tried to avoid a red Honda as they sped past.

"What's that ahead?" Doujima asked, noticing that the street was splitting off in two directions. A large gray building loomed ahead of them on their path.

"Museum" Sakaki replied as he prepared to turn. Suddenly he got an idea. "Hang on, Yuri!"

"What? Why? NO!"

A second later, Sakaki revved the engine again and shot forward towards the museum door.

**----**

**Present Time**

**----**

Michael and Robin broke apart in time to see the motorcycle come flying through the now open front door. The two teens ran quickly to the left as Sakaki and Doujima went flying by them on the back of a motorcycle, and Sakaki turned hard to the right and came to a screeching stop.

A second later, Kichiro's motorcycle came flying in just behind them, but Kichiro wasn't as good on a bike as his son was. When he tried to screech to a stop, he failed and crashed right into one of the walls, throwing Kichiro off the bike and towards a wall, but the witch's craft kicked in and stopped him from hitting it, landing on his feet.  
  
"Damn! Didn't expect that." Sakaki cursed.

"Haruto?"

Sakaki and Doujima suddenly blinked and turned around. It was quite a sight to see. Doujima and Sakaki, both of whom were dressed in their undergarments and their dark coats sat on the back of the motorcycle, staring intently at Michael, who wore Samurai armor and carried a sword, and Robin, who was blushing red from her kissing session.

"Michael?" Sakaki grinned. "Is it Halloween already?"  
  
"They're called pants, some people wear them." Michael shot back, and Sakaki blushed and pulled his coat shut.

"Doujima, what—" Robin began, but a loud curse from Kichiro cut them all of. He was now walking towards them with his aged face full of fury, his yellow teeth grinding together angrily and his salty voice spitting hatred.  
  
"I hate you all!"  
  
Sakaki reached inside his coat and pulled out the handgun from before, holding it aloft. The crash had hurt Kichiro. His leg was cut from where it had been jammed into the exhaust pipe, and blood was oozing down. His face and neck were covered in cuts and burgundy fluid dripped down from the corner of his mouth.

"I…will…KILL YOU ALL!"  
  
Kichiro flashed his powers out, but Sakaki's own equal craft flashed back and sent his father falling to the floor in a heap of blood. Sakaki cocked the gun in his hand and walked over, his eyes full of rage."You killed mom." He said quietly as he pressed the nozzle of the gun to his father's head.

"I sure as hell did." Kichiro grinned back.

Sakaki pressed the gun tighter into Kichiro's forehead, and he loved it. He loved seeing his father lie on the ground in pain, and he loved the knowledge that one squeeze of a trigger and his dad was dead forever. It was more enjoyable than fun, or food, or sex. It was the best feeling in the world.

"Haruto-kun!"  
  
Suddenly, Doujima spoke, and Sakaki suddenly felt bad. Not just bad, he felt _dirty_. He felt worse than he ever had. He had been an inch from killing someone, and he had loved it. He had already been itching to kill, and wondering when he could do it again, when Doujima broke the spell.

He felt horrible. He had been ready to commit a cold-blooded murder.

_Just like my father._

Sakaki threw the gun to his right and screamed. He hated how much he had enjoyed it. He hated the feeling he had loved so much only seconds ago.  
  
"Not even going to kill me, eh?"  
  
"No." Sakaki shook his head. "No, I won't kill you."  
  
Kichiro closed his eyes and let his head fall backwards onto the ground. "That's too bad."  
  
Suddenly, Kichiro shot upward and his boot connected with Sakaki's chin before the blonde could move. Kichiro stretched one of his hands out and suddenly the rapier that had fallen to the ground after Rick Richards was destroyed flew to his hand.

"Go visit your mother!"  
  
Kichiro raised the rapier over his head and stabbed it downward at his son, but at that very moment the sound of gunshots was heard and Kichiro's chest and head exploded in several tiny spots as bullets tore through the skin, through his chin, through his throat, his lungs, heart, and brain, all destroyed by the barrage of bullets.

Sakaki blinked as he opened his eyes to see his father killed. Kichiro's body, now with fourteen new holes in the head and chest, slumped down to the cold marble floors of the museum as he dropped the rapier.

The eyes of Sakaki, as well as those of everyone else in the museum, shot to the door where Amon and Karasuma stood with black handguns out in front of them. Both of them released the empty clips, which fell onto the floor, breaking the stone silence with an eerie gong sound.

"Amon." Robin whispered quietly.

Karasuma was breathing heavily, her eyes wide and fearful. Doujima sighed, and she knew that look. It was the same hallowed look her own eyes had worn, after she killed David Rica.

Amon, however, showed no sign of pity or remorse for the now dead father of Sakaki. He just turned around and hurried out the museum door.

All of them were so caught up in the moment, that they never noticed Kichiro's hand was slowly moving. Moving ever so slowly towards the black rapier hilt, as if being drawn by some invisible force. None of them heard Kichiro as his hand touch the rapier and he spoke in a quiet, raspy voice, a single word.

"Campbell . . ."

**------------------**

**listening to Jimmy Wayne's _I Love You This Much_**

Dude, this song **SO** reminds me of Kichiro and Sakaki. Listen, or read rather…

_He can't remember,_

_The times that he thought,_

_"Does My Daddy Love Me?  
Probably not,"_

_But that didn't stop him,_

_From wishing that he did,_

_Keep him from wanting,_

_Or worshiping him,_

_I guess he saw him,_

_About once a year,_

_He can still feel the way he felt,_

_Standing in tears,_

_Stretching his arms out,_

_As far as they'd go,_

_Whispering daddy,_

_"I want you to know"_

_I love you this much,_

_And I'm waiting on you,_

_To make up your mind,_

_"Do you love me too?"  
However long it takes,_

_I'm never giving up,_

_No matter what,_

_I love you this much._

_He grew to hate him,_

_For what he had done,_

_Cause what kind of father,_

_Could do that to his son?_

_He said "Damn ya daddy"_

_The day that he died,_

_The man didn't blink,_

_But the little boy cried,_

_I love you this much,_

_And I'm waiting on you,_

_To make up your mind,_

_"Do you love me too?"  
However long it takes,_

_I'm never giving up,_

_No matter what,_

_I love you this much._

_Halfway through the service,_

_While the choir sang a hem,_

_He looked up above the preacher,_

_And he sat and stared at Him,_

_He said, "Forgive me father",_

_When he realized,_

_He hadn't been unloved,_

_Or alone all his life,_

_His arms were stretched out,_

_As far as they'd go,_

_Nailed to the cross,_

_For the whole world to know_

_I love you this much,_

_And I'm waiting on you,_

_To make up your mind,_

_"Do you love me too?"  
However long it takes,_

_I'm never giving up,_

_No matter what,_

_I love you this much._

Don't you think that's kind Sakaki and Kichiro's Luke/Vader relationship?  
  
And just like in the song, somewhere, deep down inside, Sakaki still has feelings for Kichiro. Not love, and not respect, but some kind of feeling near that nature.

Anyway, I'm out of here,


	9. Merry Christmas, Puppies

**Witch Hunter Robin  
False Echoes  
  
Chapter IX – Merry Christmas, Puppies**

**  
Disclaimer**: You know by now I don't own **Witch Hunter Robin®**, which belongs to **Sunrise® **and **Sci-Fi® Channel**. You know this already.Nor do I own the song _False Echoes_; I just borrowed its title.  
  
Storyline, Plot, **Kenny** **Avery©**,** Roger Williams©**, **Kichiro Wantanabee©**, **Rick Richards©**, **Michael Campbell©**, **Rosalind Nichols©** and **Mr. _David Rica_©** are mine.****

**   
Author Notes**:

**----------------**

The park was surprisingly sunny for Christmas Eve, and the gleam of golden rays of the sun shining off mounds of white snow was the first thing Yurika Doujima noticed, as she stepped out of her new red car, the same model as her old one.

Her old car had been destroyed by Kichiro Wantanabee's craft a few days ago, and so until she could afford a new one, the STN-J had provided her with a nice rental car. Of course, she liked the new one so much; she had decided to keep it.

Now, however, as the black tired rolled over the white snow that lightly painted the ground above the park, she was not out for a joy ride. It was business, not pleasure. She heard Miho was here, and she had been meaning to talk to her.

Doujima saw the cold, unforgiving look that had haunted Miho's eyes that night at the museum. It was the icy chilled look that told the sad story of taking a life. Even an evil life, a life that had been dedicated to the worst possible cause, as Kichiro's had been. The pain was the same, whether you kill an innocent child, or a guilty rapist, it hurts you all the same.

Doujima's feet stepped over the snow-covered ground, packing the white powder deep into the brown soil of the earth. Her sapphire eyes landed on the form of a relatively young woman sitting on a small, snow-capped park bench. Doujima saw Karasuma sitting in her pink coat, her haunted eyes looking down at the snowy ground.

"Hey Miho-chan." Doujima spoke in a warm voice. But as warm as it was they both knew why Doujima had come and it was a reason colder than the snow."Yurika." Karasuma acknowledged quietly. The blonde sighed and moved over towards the park bench, brushing some of the powdery snow off the black painted wood before slipping down and sitting beside her friend."I know." Doujima said quietly, no longer feeling the courage to look at her friend. "It's awful."  
  
"I've killed people before, Yurika." Karasuma spat out matter-of-factly. "I used to work here before the Orbo."  
  
Doujima sighed and bit her lip. "Yeah, but that doesn't make it less painful."

Karasuma sighed and brought her face up to eye level with the younger girl. Doujima could see tears welling up inside the redhead's eyes and she sighed, wishing she could help more. Of course, there is no cure to heartache. There is no cure for the pain that comes with murder.

"You saved Haruto's life." Doujima whispered.

"And you saved both his _and_ Robin's when you killed Rica, but that is a shallow comfort isn't it?" Karasuma asked meekly. Doujima sighed.

"Miho-chan . . ."  
  
"It is okay. I've been through this before. It's just been so long."  
  
Doujima wrapped a comforting arm around her friend, but there was no real calming for Karasuma's uneasy heart.  
  
"I killed someone for the first time when I was just fourteen, Yurika." Karasuma's edgy tone was talking once again, and Doujima began to feel that she was only depressing her friend even more. "I was just a kid, Yuri. But because I'm a fucking witch, I had to kill or be killed."  
  
Karasuma's sadness was melting away and anger was taking over. Her body was shaking quietly beside Doujima and memories were flashing inside her mind. Memories of the first time she'd killed someone.

**----**

**February 18th, 1997**** (Start Flashback)**

**----**

It was, of course, a dark warehouse. There was always a dark warehouse. The problem with tonight was Karasuma was on her second hunt ever, and she had to do it with her new partner, Amon.

Amon. What did she think about him? That he was a bastard. A total and utter bastard. They had already had one fight the night before and now they were expected to hunt a witch without Josh.Josh. He was different. Josh Osaka, the son of a witch father from Tokyo and a human mother from Chicago. He was the leader of the STN-J's Witch Hunting team, and he had been nothing but nice to her in the few short weeks since she arrived here. Not like Amon, who had told her to stop crying and work harder.

Karasuma was shaken from her thoughts as Amon's voice spoke, announcing that they were now at the warehouse. Her deep ocean eyes shot out to look at the ominous black shape that was an old factory before them. A large steel door where trucks had once loaded boxes, but were now unused, stood open all the way.

"Let's go."

Karasuma stepped out of the car, walking over the cold ground as quickly as she could. Amon wasn't waiting for her. She watched as he ran in the pale light cast down from the silvery moon, his hair, as black as the night itself, was swaying behind him in the wind. She watched as the jacket that he wore over his shirt fluttered in the breeze.

Beneath the jacket was the shirt as black as the rest of his personality that clung to his perfectly shaped chest so tightly – what the hell was she thinking? Karasuma caught herself as her thoughts turned away from her partner running towards and witch hunt, and to his . . . anatomy.   
  
Shaking her head and lowering it afterwards to keep Amon from seeing her blush (which she didn't need to do, since he was ignoring her completely anyway), she arrived beside him at a small door on the side of the factory as Amon picked the lock quietly. Suddenly there was a click and Amon went for his gun before kicking in the door.

The two newest STN-J operatives flocked inside the building quickly, their eyes flashing around the dark room for any sign of the Witch they were supposed to be hunting.

There was nothing but silence. Karasuma ran to the right, Amon to the left. Karasuma's swift feet carried her deep inside the ocean of boxes and covered objects and odd machines before she heard the gunshots. She spun around as fast as she possibly could and could see a flash of light from the distance, followed by more gunshots.

Running once more towards the sound of guns and craft powers, she hurried past a mountain of old crates, but her foot slipped and she went falling face first onto the icy concrete ground. She felt her chin smash into the ground and could feel blood begin to trickle from her nose.

She pushed herself up with her arms, trying to ignore the pain that had shot from her chin to the top of her head and the thick stream of blood that fell from her nose. The youngest Witch Hunter ran around another corner and her eyes adjusted to the sight before her.

Amon lay against a wall, a dark trickle of blood seeping from his leg and pooling around him. He held his left arm on a crate at his side, clenching his fist into the wood, which broke and splintered at his strong touch, while his right hand held the gun out, squeezing off the last remaining shots.

The witch, a tall man with long black hair down the middle of his back and cold unforgiving green eyes, merely laughed as the bullets fell harmlessly to the ground. The witch flicked his head lightly and a large crowbar that had lain against an old barrel of gasoline shot into the air and flew down at Amon like a spear.

Karasuma fired her gun at that moment, and the witch was so surprised by the sound of the gunshot, that he missed with the crowbar and it smashed into the splintered wooden crate Amon's hand had squeezed to help him fight the pain in his leg.

The witch turned around slowly, his vindictive eyes falling on Karasuma. He smirked smugly and walked towards her, raising one of his hands out before him. Karasuma aimed the gun, but she could not fire it. She froze as ice chilled her spine all the way down.

"How old are you? Ten? Twelve?" The witch smirked as he reached forward. Karasuma fired the gun, but not at him, only past his head. The witch was not afraid of the gunshot and he only smirked wider as he walked towards her.

"Karasuma, kill him!" Amon's cold voice was heard over the witch's diabolical laughter.

Karasuma fired a second shot, but again she missed on purpose. She wanted the witch to stop. She wanted him to stop moving. She didn't want him to come any closer to her. Her eyes watered with salty tears as her nose continued to bleed sticky, warm blood.

"Stupid child."   
  
The crowbar from before shot out of the wood beside Amon, and before the dark hunter could react; it flew across the room and towards Karasuma. She screamed and pulled the trigger a fourth time as the metal bar smashed into her shoulder and sliced open her flesh, allowing more of the same sticky substance that fell from her nose to spatter across her chest.

Her arm flailed as the crowbar hit her, causing the gun to fire in a different direction than she meant it to, and causing the bullet to fly swiftly into the witch's chest, piercing his ribcage and lungs below. After a brief gurgling sound the witch fell to the ground as blood bubbled up and out of his mouth, like a dinner pot overflowing while boiling.

Karasuma fell onto the ground as her shoulder leaked her lifeblood onto her black STN-J trench coat and pink sweater beneath. She cried as the pain overtook her and the adrenaline that had kept her fighting vanished. Her chin hurt, she had a horrible headache, and now her arm was bleeding rigorously.

She did not know how long it took Amon, who could not walk, to drag himself across the floor to her. She did know that after what seemed like a eternity of pain in her shoulder and matching hurt in her head, Amon's cold, gloved hands reached out and pushed the jacket from her body.

She was still crying as Amon began to lift her sweater, before she realized that Amon was lifting her sweater. She made a noise to protest, but the dark hunter ignored her as he always did. After discarding the blood-drenched shirt on the ground he pushed her back painfully into a wall as his eyes darter to the torn hole in her shoulder blade.

A second later, Amon reached down for the sweater once more, grabbed the blood stained shirt, and began to tear one of the sleeves off.

"H-h-hey!" Karasuma tried to complain, but Amon ignored her once again as he wrapped the sleeve of her shirt around her shoulder and tied it tightly over the wound. So tightly, that it hurt horribly and made Karasuma scream out and cry more.

"Hush." Amon spoke in his normal voice as harsh as ice. He pulled the sweater sleeve over her wound even tighter before he found it acceptable. He then moved his gloved hand down her arm and used two fingers to squeeze a small corner of her wrist.  
  
"What are you doing?" Karasuma barked. She had stopped crying, though tears mixed with blood still soaked her face. He was squeezing a vain in her wrist painfully and she wanted him to stop.  
  
"I'm fracturing your nerves." Amon's cold reply came as he continued squeezing her vein. A second later, Karasuma felt her petite arm go numb, like she had slept on it too long and it was asleep. It was an annoying feeling, but the pain had diminished considerably.

Amon then slumped back against the crates at her side and gave a low sigh. She only then remembered his leg, which had been spewing out sticky blood this entire time, and she gave him a concerned look, but he ignored her and only wrapped one of his massive arms around her bare back.

"What are you doing now?" Karasuma was being forced against Amon's chest, which sent a tiny spill of pain through her arm, but she could barley feel it over the numbness. What was worse than the pain was the fact she had suddenly become very aware that she was wearing nothing more than a black bra and her face had become as red as the blood that covered the ground.  
  
"I can't walk, and you shouldn't move until the bleeding stops." Amon explained. "We need to get some sleep. Josh will come looking for us soon. Now hush."

Karasuma, blushing, bleeding, and bra-chested sighed and leaned into Amon's chest, closing her eyes and trying to pretend she was in her nice warm bed instead of this dark, cold factory with the dead body of a witch feet away.

The dead body of a witch she had killed.

**----**

**December 24th, 2002**** (End Flashback)**

**----**

Karasuma shook her red-haired head and stood up all at once. She couldn't dwell on the past. She couldn't dwell on those she had killed, just like she couldn't dwell on the feelings she'd had for Amon since that night. It was all pointless.  
  
"Miho-chan . . .?"  
  
Karasuma blinked and suddenly remembered that Doujima had been sitting beside her for at least twenty minutes in mute silence. The blonde was giving her friend a quizzical look, but Karasuma only flashed a weak, but still warm smile.  
  
"Let's go to Harry's." She said at length.

**----**

The atmosphere inside Touko's apartment was cheerful on Christmas Eve.

Michael sat in a chair just outside the kitchen, his blue eyes looming out from behind his orange glasses, watching Robin. Robin herself was standing before the stove, making genuine Italian spaghetti and meatballs for their dinner. Perhaps not the most traditional Christmas dinner, but it was a welcome treat for both Touko and Michael.

Robin had her sleeves pulled back and tied to her upper arms with rubber bands as she mashed the sauce herself. She didn't use the store bought cans of spaghetti sauce, she was making it from scratch, as she did in Italy at the convent.

"Smells good." Michael commented from his seat outside the kitchen as he let his head lounge on his hands, supporting his entire weight with his elbows. Robin flashed him a small smile but said nothing. She had, of course, kicked them both out of the kitchen so not to get in the way of the many pots and pans that contained noodles or the ingredients for the sauce.

"Did you make this a lot back in Italy?" Touko asked. She was seated next to Michael, a small notebook on the counter before her, which was filled with numbers and small math equations: she was paying the bills.

"Actually, this is the first time I've done this." Robin grinned. "I used to make the meatballs for Sister Mary and Sister Angelina, but that was all."

Michael smiled as he watched her cook. Of course, he smiled anytime his eyes fell on her. She always had a way of cheering him up and making him feel warm and content, even in bad situations. He got an odd little smirk on his face and suddenly, remembered something he'd meant to ask her for a long time.  
  
"Robin, are you a Nun?"

Robin blinked and shook her head. "No."

It was Touko's turned to blink. "You're not?"

Robin shook her head once more, a sad sigh escaping her mouth. "I can't be a Nun… because Nuns can't kill people."

There was a small silence in the room in which both Touko and Michael found that looking at the ceiling was incredibly addictive before at last Michael spoke in a solemn voice. "I'm sorry."  
  
"It's okay." Robin shook her head once again. "I can't change what I've done. I can only hope to be forgiven."  
  
"Can't we all."  
  
Michael, Robin and Touko all gave a startled jump as Nagira spoke from behind them all. Robin and Michael, who had never met the man before, both took offensive stances, but Touko shook her hand at them.  
  
"Konnichiwa, Nagira-san." Touko smiled up at him.

"Hey." Nagira shot back as he dug around his pocket for a moment before at last he found a cigarette and put it between his lips before beginning a second dig for his lighter.   
  
Robin and Michael shot each other equally quizzical looks, asking without words if they knew who this man might be, but Touko and Nagira seemed to ignore them completely. Touko was busy shooting her own asking look without words, trying to determine if Nagira had learned anything about the matter they discussed a few days ago.

"Was it—"  
  
"Yes." Nagira said at once.

Touko sighed and shook her head. "I see."  
  
Her voice was quiet, but Robin was able to pick up on the sadness and immeasurable anger that hid behind the wall of whispers. Before the pond green-eyed girl could ask Touko about it, the blonde was gone.

She had grabbed Nagira's hand and sped off out the door, leaving Michael and Robin alone."What was that about?" Robin asked as she walked out of the kitchen and stared at the now-closed door that the two adults had vanished into only seconds ago."I have no idea."

**----**

For the second time in December, Sakaki found himself down on one knee, sitting in the fluffy white snow that covered his mother's grave.

"Ma'."  
  
Sakaki wore a warm smile on his face, despite the fact it was freezing cold. His blonde hair was covered in small, damp mass of snowflakes, and he shook from the cold, as his breath became a hoary haze in the air before him.   
  
"I wanted to give this to you for seven years, Ma'."  
  
Sakaki opened his fist, which had been protectively holding the small silver necklace that Doujima had recovered for him from his father after the first time he had been stopped by Amon. Sakaki's eyes watered a bit and he tried to keep himself from crying, but truly he could not. He was too happy."Dad's gone, ma'. He's dead. Amon and Karasuma-san killed him."

Sakaki wiped the snow clean of the soft plot of earth that was covering the grave, and then slipped the small silver necklace onto it with a loving smile.  
  
"Yuri-chan got it back from Dad. I wanted to bring it sooner, but I've been real busy. Gomen nasai ma'."

Sakaki gave a loving sigh as he smiled down at his mother's grave. It was wonderful to finally have some closure.

_Haruto, aged six, sat on his mother's lap as the car pulled into the parking lot of their new apartment building in the big city called __Tokyo__. Sora Sakaki smiled down at her son and reached into the glove compartment, pulling out a tissue and wiping her son's nose with it, trying to get a spot off.  
  
"Stoppit ma'."_

_"Hold still Haruto."_

_Haruto complained but he was still happy in his mother's lap, even if she was wiping his nose with a tissue. He laughed a bit for no real reason and the redhead smiled down at him with a loving glance._

_"Ma?"_

_"Yes Haruto?" Sora asked as she turned off the ignition and opened the door of the car._

_"Is dad really gone?"_

_Sora paused and sighed quietly to herself. She ran a hand through her son's blonde hair tenderly. He had gotten the blonde hair from her father's genes, which she was happy for. Sakaki looked a lot like his grandfather and almost nothing like his father._

_  
"Yes honey, he is." She smiled to her son.  
  
"Good." Haruto replied as he gave his mother a tender hug. "I don't like dad."  
  
Sora sighed and hugged her son back. "Let's go to our new home, Haruto."_

_  
"Okay, ma!"  
  
"Will you help me with the bags?"  
  
"Sure ma!"_

**----**

**That Night**

**----**

The Christmas Eve dinner had been wonderful, of course.  
  
Robin had learned how to cook in the convent, as it was a manner of keeping her busy, and when an eleven-year-old girl has the ability to create fire at will, it is important to keep her busy so that she does not use those powers out of boredom.

After dinner, Michael had found his way onto the terrace of Touko's apartment and now he stood leaning on the railing, his sky blue eyes scanning over the snow covered city. It was wonderful to be outside in the snow. It really was.

After what seemed like an eternity, but was probably only an hour, he heard the terrace door open and Robin joined him outside. His eyes flashed to her for a brief moment before returning to the city.  
  
"Hey." Michael said offhanded.

Robin walked quickly over towards Michael and wrapped her arms around his back and under his own arms. Being pulled into a hug from behind him, Michael smiled for a minute before turning around and pulling Robin close to him.

"Hey." Robin finally responded as she smiled up at him.

Michael's lips found their way to Robin's forehead, kissing her softly. He repeated his kisses a second and third time before Robin shot her hand up. He had been about to place a fourth kiss on her forehead, but Robin's hand changed the route and brought Michael's lips on a crash-course with her own.

The hacker had the same pink twinge in his cheeks that he always had when he and Robin shared a moment like this. Their lips met a second and final time before Robin gave him a happy hug and set her head down gently on his shoulder.  
  
They stood out on the terrace for a while as snow fell around them, and onto them. Robin's pond green eyes scanned the city just as Michael's ocean blue ones had done only minutes ago.  
  
"Merry Christmas, Michael." Robin squeaked quietly.

Michael smirked back as he ran one of his fingers over her silky smooth neck and smiled as she shivered not from the cold but from his touch.  
  
"Merry Christmas, Robin."

**----**

Not far from where Robin and Michael shared an innocent moment of kissing on the terrace of Touko's apartment, Sakaki lay on his bed in his small apartment.

He had all day been remembering memories about times he had shared with his mother. He always did, but for the first time he was remembering the _happy_ memories. The memories about his mother reading him stories before bed, or kissing his cheek before he went off to school.

He sighed happily. For the first time, he was not remembering her death, or one of her many beatings at the hands of his father, but instead he was remembering happiness. He felt wonderful for the first time in years.

Then the front door opened.

Sakaki's hand reached under his pillow and he grabbed his gun, aiming it at the still closed bedroom door as he heard footsteps approach.   
  
There was a moment's hesitation before the door swung open and Sakaki spotted Doujima. Her eyes fell on the gun and she gave a small, throaty growl. Sakaki shook his head and returned the gun under his pillow.  
  
"Domo."  
  
"Yeah, whatever." Doujima grinned. "You're slow, aren't you Haruto-kun?"

Sakaki blinked and looked back over at Doujima, and suddenly realized that he _was_ slow. He hadn't even noticed it before, but now as he looked he realized what Doujima was dressed in.

Her black STN-J coat. And a big, red ribbon tied around her neck.

That was all.

"Yuri-chan . . ."

"I spent all my cash on the new car so this was the only present I could think of." Doujima explained with a sly grin, but then she added quickly: "But if Robin-chan asked, I gave you a watch."

Sakaki grinned.

**----**

Kenny Avery gave a sigh as his eyes scanned out the window.

The car rolled up outside a large, gorgeous hotel in downtown Tokyo. Kenny and Roger, who had both become great friends, were now sitting outside while Rica went in to check on their hotel reservations.

Avery and Williams had learned they had very much in common. Both of them had served in the Gulf War, and afterwards turned to become police officers. Kenny was a homicide detective in New York, while Williams was a drug enforcement official in London. Both of them, while happily married, had once cheated on their wives. And both of them were blackmailed into working for an undead zombie killer from New Orleans.

Kenny was tall and lean, built like a classic American High School football star. His hair was blonde and curly, his eyes a pale blue. Roger on the other hand was bulkier and shorter. He was built like a bulldog, but as gentle as a beagle. His hair was red and wavy, and freckles covered his face.

"Puppies, I got our rooms."  
  
The two blackmailed cops turned their heads to the car window and spotted Rica, with women. The girls wore bellhop uniforms and there was one hanging off of each of his arms. The smug, smiling, sunglass wearing man between turned around and headed back into the hotel.

"You know." Roger said in an amused chuckle. "I wonder what the women say when David takes off his sunglasses."

Kenny shrugged. The memory of Rica's hallowed out eye sockets was horrible and chilled him to the bone. The two young men shook their heads and headed into the hotel.  
  
The hotel was, in a word, breathtaking. The carpets were rich, red and black and yellow and gave a warm feel, like a loving fireplace. The walls were gold and shined in the light and the smell of fresh flowers floated around.  
  
"Hate the smell." Kenny suddenly heard Rica telling the girls at his arms. "Back in New Orleans, a hotel smells good. Smells like beer and gumbo. Damn good smell. Though you two smell awful good, yourselves."

Kenny felt like he'd be sick, so he sighed and decided to take a different elevator than Rica and the girls. Roger seemed to get the same idea, because he too climbed onto the same elevator as Kenny.

"He's bloody horrible." Roger randomly ranted.

"Who? Rica? Yeah, he is."

The elevator stopped and the New York cop and his British counterpart stepped off into the hallways (which were snow white walls with an ocean blue carpet that gave a serene, peaceful fill) and down the hall they saw Rica going to open the hotel room door, the girls giggling at his side.

"Let's hang back for a while. I don't fancy watching Rica on the job." Roger said almost sickly.  
  
"Eh, by the time we get down there, he'll be done."  
  
The two cops laughed at this as they headed down the hall, but suddenly there were screams from the two girls at the door, and the sound of automatic gunfire made both Avery and Williams go for their pistols at once.

Machineguns were firing from inside Rica's hotel room. Kenny could only guess their number at anywhere from six to nine. Rica and the girls at his arms were in a steady streak of fire as bullets sailed through their bodies swiftly and into the wall behind.

Kenny had, when the shooting started, grabbed his gun and ducked behind the edge of their hallway and a connecting one, and Roger had jumped back into the elevator, hit the emergency stop and crouched down in the doorway. Kenny shot a look at the Englishman and made an old military hand gesture for "follow me."

The second Kenny looked down the hallway he saw, the girls and Rica lying slumped against the wall in a pool of blood. Two men with machineguns wearing black suits that reminded him of the SWAT team were in the hallway. A third exited the hotel room and spotted Kenny. He gave a brief cry, but Kenny fired his nine millimeter first and put a bullet in the man's black mask.

The other two men turned around and began to empty their clips in a barrage of machinegun fire, and Kenny kicked open a room door beside him and jumped inside just in the knick of time. Roger was able to squeeze off two shots from his black revolver, which hit the leg of one of the shooters, before he had to duck into the elevator for protection.

The other men inside the hotel room had dispensed into the hallway and were now joining in the firing towards Kenny and Roger, when one of the Factory Agents, for they were in fact Factory Agents, heard the sound of a pistol cock from behind him.

Before the Factory agent could move he felt the barrel of a gun press into the back of his head, and heard a smug voice, thick will New Orleans accent, speak.  
  
"Couldn't you have shot the girls after I screwed them? Oh, and by the way, bullets don't work on me, puppy."

Rica pulled the trigger of his silver revolver that looked like a relic from a John Wayne movie and blew a large hole in the man's neck. The remaining Factory agents moved like clockwork. Of the six still alive, three spun around and fired repeated shots into Rica, while the others continued firing towards Kenny and Roger.  
  
Rica laughed as the bullet tore holes in his skin and some of the older wounds healed up at the same time. He aimed the gun casually, almost as if he didn't realize he was being shot, and one-by-one killed the six Factory agents.

When Kenny and Roger heard the gunfire stop, they peeked their heads out slowly to see Rica standing over the two dead women and the dead team of Factory assassins. Both Avery and Williams looked stunned.  
  
"Damn." Rica cursed, ignoring their obvious bewilderment at his survival and their growing curiosity as the bullet holes covering him healed up. "Zaizen knows we're here. I suppose Kichiro must have tipped him off."  
  
Kenny and Roger both sighed as many surprised faced looked into the hallway, desperate to see what was happening now that the bullets had stopped flying. Rica ignored them and gave a small yawn.  
  
"Merry Christmas, puppies."

**----------------**


	10. Touko, the Angry Angel

**Note**: Now edited with the beta reader's correction!

**Witch Hunter Robin  
False Echoes  
  
Chapter X – Touko, the Angry Angel**

**  
Disclaimer**: You know by now I don't own **Witch Hunter Robin®**, which belongs to **Sunrise® **and **Sci-Fi® Channel**. You know this already.Nor do I own the song _False Echoes_; I just borrowed its title.  
  
Storyline, Plot, **Kenny** **Avery©**,** Roger Williams©**, **Kichiro Wantanabee©**, **Rick Richards©**, **Michael Campbell©**, **Rosalind Nichols©** and **Mr. _David Rica_©** are mine.****

** ----------------**

"So, what's your plan?"

"I don't have a plan. I want to see my father."

"Then what? You're just gonna ask him, 'Daddy, did you kill my child?'"

"Yes."

"Yes? Touko-chan. . . ."

"I don't care, Nagira. I really don't give a damn. He may be my father, but if he did do this, I will kill the bastard myself."

Nagira gave a huge sigh and leaned back in the black leather seats of his car. He and Touko had been over this conversation time and time again since yesterday, since they left a bewildered Robin and Michael at her apartment.

Nagira's eyes moved across the car and came to a stop on Touko. Was she really going to do this? Was she really going to murder her own father? Nagira gave a small sigh. Everyone he cared about had a parent they hated. He himself had loved his father, very much.

Amon, however, had hated him. Amon had hated their father, and Amon hated Nagira for the simple reason that Mr. Syunji had chosen to have his first son with a human woman, while he had given life to Amon through a witch.

Nagira gave a small sigh as the morning sun cast its golden-red rays into the windows of the car and lit up his tired face. It was clear he wasn't in a good mood today. It was all too very clear of that. He didn't want Touko hurt. He didn't want Touko to do something that would get her killed.

After all, if Zaizen _did_ murder his newborn grandchild, he surely could murder his daughter.

"Hey, Touko-chan. I've got a crazy idea for you." Nagira said as he leaned up in the passenger seat and looked over to the blonde woman beside him. "If you want your father dead, why not tell Amon about this whole thing and let him do it? Amon kills people for a living, and he's very good at it—"

"I lied to Amon." Touko said flatly. "I told him that our child was still-born. I never told him that someone walked into the hospital and walked away with her. Amon would never forgive me."  
  
Nagira sighed. "You've never forgiven Amon for passing on his Witch's Blood to your child. That's why your 'relationship' has been falling apart for two and a half years."

Touko gave a small sigh and closed her deep blue eyes, something that Nagira cursed at as he grabbed the steering wheel from her. Touko made no move to acknowledge the man as he steered the car bumpily into a parking lot.

"Now listen, Touko. I know that what happened was horrible, but you don't even know for sure it was Zaizen."  
  
Touko growled. "You said that it was."

"I…" Nagira spat back in an even meaner growl. "Called people who live on the other side of the world, did my best to understand English, and talked about something that happened two years ago. Besides, the lead detective, Avery something, wasn't even home."

Touko sighed. "Nagira, do you think my father murdered my child?"  
  
Nagira gave a small sigh and became very quiet for a moment. In that moment, his eyes scanned the passing traffic in the street. Cars of all colors containing families of all shapes and sizes. Happy families. Families that weren't witches or witch's brothers or anything like that.

"Yes, I do think he did. But I can't prove it."  
  
Touko sighed. "Well, neither can I. But I won't let him get away with this."  
  
Touko reached to start the car again, but Nagira gave a furious growl from the bottom of his throat and grabbed her wrist before her fingers could grasp the key.

"Why?"

"What?"

"Why now?" Nagira spat. "Why are you so damn hell-bent on revenge after two years? You know that murdering your father will get SOLOMON after you, and you know that Amon's going to find out why you did it, and that'll be it. Once he finds out you lied to him, any chance you two have will be gone. So, why are you ready to ruin your life over this?"

"Because I don't want him to kill this one!" Touko screamed so loud that people walking by the car on the street turned and looked. Nagira's big brown eyes shot down to Touko's stomach, and suddenly he understood.

She was pregnant, again.

**----**

Robin gave a small yawn and awoke to the sight of crimson-stained gold light flashing through her windows on Christmas Morning.

Robin had always loved Christmas. Not only the normal reasons, like presents and snow and decorating trees, but being raised as a nun she also knew and loved the spiritual reasons behind Christmas. It really was amazing.

As Robin dressed herself quietly, she could hear the sound of furious keyboard keys clicking in the other room, and knew that Michael was up as well. She couldn't help but blush pink as she thought about their kissing last night on the terrace. She had almost forgotten what happened in the museum with Rick Richard's echo a few days ago.  
  
As she finished dressing in her black and red skirts and coats, she opened the door and set off down the hall, while tying her blonde hair up with the twin purple ribbons that she had received for Christmas many years ago, a present from Juliano.

Suddenly, she froze in mid-walk. She had forgotten completely to find a present for Michael. She knew that presents didn't matter on Christmas, because Christmas was about Jesus Christ, the Son of God, but still, she felt bad that she could not get Michael something.

"Robin?" A voice suddenly called from the other room. "Is that you?"  
  
"I'm here." She called back, realizing that he would have heard the door opening. She finished tying her handlebar hairdo and walked into the living room, where she found Michael the redheaded hacker she had fallen in love with sitting in a small chair by the computer in the corner.

"Merry Christmas." Robin said happily as she walked over towards him. She gave a small yawn and leaned her hands down on Michael's shoulder, and then she set her chin down on her hands. "What are you doing?"

 "Hey." Michael shot back as his eyes roamed over thousands of small Internet windows as they opened and closed at lightning speed and the click of a mouse. She couldn't even see what half of the pages were about, but Michael managed to soak up the information like a sponge. "I'm looking for Touko."

Robin suddenly felt a cold shiver down her back and she sighed. "Touko? She didn't come back?"  
  
"No." Michael said solemnly. "And I don't know where Nagira took her."  
  
Robin blinked. Nagira? The man who had came and left with Touko. She shook her head. She didn't know him. "Who is he Michael?"

"Amon's brother." Michael said simply as the webpages scrolled through faster and faster by the second.

Robin was taken aback. "Amon?"

Amon had told her once that he had no family. He had lied to her? She couldn't believe that Amon would lie to her. She always thought of Amon as a friend, maybe a cold and dark friend, but a friend who was always honest.

"Yeah. Half-brother really. I hacked into my computer at Raven's Flat and I've been checking for any sign of where Touko could be. So far, I've found nothing. She hasn't used her credit card, didn't withdraw any money at the bank, so she can't be leaving Tokyo. She was in Nagira's car, but I can't get plates on it. It's really annoying."

Robin sighed and stared blankly at the blue light that was illuminating Michael's face in the dark of the room, with slight help from the crimson-stained light of the sun that mingled in the back of the living room.

"Karasuma." Robin breathed quietly, and suddenly Michael's fingers stopped hitting the keys and he grinned at her, almost as if complementing how brilliant she was at times.

**----**

Karasuma was relaxing, or trying to relax, in a hot bath on Christmas morning.

She did not know what was causing her mind to return to the events of five years ago, when she had developed a crush of sorts on her dark partner, Amon, but her mind was constantly returning to Amon, and to Josh Osaka.

Why did she still feel this way? Amon was dating Touko, in a way anyway, and Josh was dead. She had no chance with either of them, and she should just forget about them. Karasuma wasn't the kind of woman to stress on and on about romance and affairs of the heart, but there was something about Amon, some lingering memory of five years ago, that would not be forgotten.

_Dammit! Miho, this isn't like you. This isn't normal you._

She heard a phone ring from her bedroom and she sighed. Great. It was always something, wasn't it? She was angry today, angry at herself for acting this way, a way that she wasn't supposed to act like.

She pulled herself out of the tub and wrapped a towel around her damp body, and sprinted to make it to the phone before the sound of ringing died and miss the call. When you work for a secret worldwide Witch Hunting organization, it's important to not miss calls.

Her hand slammed down on the phone and brought the mouthpiece up just after the fourth ring.

"Hello?"

"Karasuma-san, good, you're home."

"Hello Michael." Karasuma sighed quietly. "What do you need?"  
  
Michael's voice sounded anxious and worried. "Can you scry something for us?"  
  
Karasuma knew why he sounded anxious. She hated using her craft. It was something she had hated ever since childhood. Sure, it was sometimes fun to be given an insight into people's minds and hearts. She had loved just randomly scrying things that belonged to strangers. That was until one day.

She had been at home. It wasn't long after SOLOMON had decided to use her as a hunter. While they worked out the details, she was allowed home with her family. She had seen an old knife on the mantle that had belonged to her great-grandfather, who had fought in World War II.

She thought it would be fun to scry the knife.

She was wrong.

The horrors that she saw on that knife that day made her want to quit SOLOMON before she even joined it. She wanted to be away from those kinds of horrors, and yet, she could not escape her job. Ever since, she had scryed murder scenes and dead bodies and all kinds of horrible things. And Michael knew how much she hated her craft.

"I wouldn't ask if this wasn't important." Michael's curt voice spoke in her ear and helped to chase those memories of the knife and what she'd seen on it back into that black vault deep within her soul.

"Where are you?" She said sadly.

"Touko's apartment. Arigato, Karasuma-san."  
  
Karasuma just sighed.

**----**

Zaizen sat behind his office, brooding.

Of course, Kichiro Wantanabee was of no more use to him than a hangnail, for the father of Sakaki had already told him everything he knew on his former partner, David Rica. Still, Zaizen couldn't pretend that he couldn't have used Kichiro.

The sixty-five year old head of the STN-J and the Factory both smoked one of his large Cuban cigars and scowled at the computer screen before them. Toudou's research was still incomplete, and he still wanted more information on the foolish man who had been partially responsible for Orbo.

It was then that he heard a ring, and with a sigh, pressed the small button on his phone that allowed his secretaries voice to fill the room, the same as the thick gray smoke of his cigar filled it.

"Mr. Zaizen, we have a Miss. Touko Masaki on line one for you."

Zaizen's eyes widened a bit. Touko had never called him at the Factory before. His hand shot down to the phone and he picked it up.

"Put her through." He ordered the secretary. There was a moment's pause, in which Zaizen's mind went through all the possible reasons why Touko would call him now, here. The reasons had not even reached halfway, when his daughter's voice was heard in his ear.

"I want to see you, dad." Touko said bitterly.

"Of course." Zaizen returned warmly. Well, as warmly as was possible for him. "Is there anything wrong?"

"Goddamn right, something is wrong." Touko spat so icily, that Zaizen jumped a bit. "I want to see you. Be at the Family Pier at the dock, in an hour. Come alone. If you don't show up, then I swear to God you'll regret it so badly, you'll wish you weren't born and had me."  
  
Before Zaizen could ask any kind of question, he heard the clicking of a cell phone hanging up and he realized at once that something was wrong. Zaizen sighed and slammed the phone down so hard, that it broke the receiver in two.

Zaizen's cold eyes moved down to the drawer and he opened it. Inside was a gun containing the purest form of Orbo known to man, even purer than that in the revolvers that had been used against Kita Nobunaga. Beside the Orbo gun, was an ordinary revolver, like the kind in American Western movies.

"God forgive me on this Christmas Day." He muttered as he pulled the revolver out of the drawer and pocketed it, before standing and setting off to meet with his daughter.

**----**

There was a knock on the door.

Robin, whom had been sitting on the couch quietly waiting for Karasuma's arrival while Michael heated up some of the spaghetti for breakfast, shot up from her seat and moved to the door, opening it quickly to reveal the dark red-haired psychic.

"Karasuma, Merry Christmas." Robin said pleasantly.

"Same to you, Robin." Karasuma acknowledged much less happily.

A second later, Michael had appeared with a grim smile on his face. He stood beside the coat hook near the door, and beckoned Karasuma over to it.

"She grabbed her coat off this hook before she left last night." Michael, never one to waste time, explained.

"Last night? Well, I'll try to scry it, but it's hard when it's been so long."

Karasuma gave one last sight, not really happy at all to find out what could make Touko run off without a word. She moved her fingers slowly towards the brass hook that had once contained Touko's coat, and tenderly her fingers touched the cold metal.

A second later, Karasuma grunted as images and emotions flashed through her body. It was one of the worst things she had ever scryed since she joined the STN-J, except perhaps for the knife of her great-grandfather.

Karasuma shot back off the hook and did her best to remain standing. Her knees were shaking; Hell, her entire body was shaking. She felt as if she was much heavier than she was before, like some invisible burden had been planted on her shoulders.

She had seen Touko's horrible thoughts. She had learned the grizzly story of how Touko had become pregnant two years ago with Amon's child, and how she had flown overseas to live with her mother in New York, afraid that her father would become angry with her if he learned she was having a baby without having a marriage.

She had seen how Touko had held her daughter in her arms only once, before the doctors took the baby to the nursery room to be cared for. She had watched in horror as the memories of a nurse saying the baby had vanished flashed before her eyes once more. She had become even worse when the image that it had been, became Zaizen. Nagira had found out it was Touko's own father who had taken the child away from her.  
  
Because the child was a witch.

And then, Karasuma had seen Touko's plan to murder her father.

As Miho Karasuma bent down, trying to catch her breath, she suddenly realized the horrible truth of where Touko and Nagira had gone, and she realized that she had to stop them or they would both die.

Without a word to Robin and Michael, Karasuma jumped to her feet and ran out the door, dialing Amon's number on her cell phone as her shaky feet carried her down the hallway.

**----**

"Get me some tea."

"Yes Kosaka-san."  
  
Amon gave a small sigh from where he sat at the bar in Harry's Place. It was almost empty, except for him, Yuji Kobari, and of course for Kosaka and Hattori, who sat at a booth by the window.

"I'll bring it to you, Mr. Kosaka." Yuji said happily from behind the bar. "You just relax, Hattori."

Hattori gave a grateful sigh and sunk back down into his side of the booth. Kosaka looked as if he could care less who brought him the tea, as long as he got the tea.

Amon really hated being around those two. Kosaka was arrogant and selfish, a regular salute to the first man to wear a mustache like his. Hattori was weak and would cave in to any demand made of Kosaka, as long as it pleased the bald chief.   
  
Suddenly, Amon's cell phone rang and he lazily dug it out of his pockets as Kobari-sama poured the tear for Kosaka. Amon noticed that the caller ID screen read "Karasuma, Miho" and he quickly opened the small phone and brought it to his face.

"Yes?"

"Touko's in danger."  
  
Amon's face fell and his bad mood only worsened. "What? By who?"  
  
Karasuma's voice took a sharp intake of breath before it spoke again. "Amon, your daughter wasn't born dead."  
  
The whiskey glass that had decorated Amon's hand slipped and fell with a sharp clang. Amon had never told a soul about having a child two and a half years ago, and the fact Karasuma had found out meant Touko was in real danger.

"What did you say?" Amon asked in a quiet, almost shy voice that made him sound like a complete stranger to Karasuma. She had never heard any trace of nervousness or fear behind that cold voice before, but now it seamed to be nothing but fear.

"Amon, your child wasn't still-born. She was murdered. By Zaizen. Nagira told Touko this and now they're on their way to murder Zaizen. I don't know where, but if we don't do something, Zaizen will kill them both."  
  
Karasuma explained all of this, and absently Amon absorbed the information. He really hadn't heard any of it the second the words "child", "murdered", and "Zaizen" had all fallen in place.

"Amon? Amon?"

"I'll meet you there." Amon said vaguely.

"Amon, we don't know where there is—"  
  
Amon hung up the phone. This was not the cold-hearted man who had no love for anyone or anything. This was a man who had once been a father, but had lost that title after his child was taken from him.

He had blamed God for taking his child, but now he knew it wasn't God's fault.It was Zaizen's.

**----**

"Are you sure about this? Do you know the consequences if you do this?" Nagira asked.   
  
They were still inside the black car with the equally black leather seats. Touko had a look on her face like an avenging angel ready to smote evil. Her hands moved down towards Nagira and slipped into his jacket. A second let she pulled out the sleek silver handgun and slipped it inside her own pocket.

"I'm sure. Even if I go to prison for life, I'll still be happy he's dead." Touko said sweetly for someone as angry as she was. She smiled at Nagira, and, realizing she was most likely going to die, she reached up and kissed him on the cheek. "Arigato gozaimasu, Nagira-san."

Nagira sighed. "If I hear gunshots, I'm coming down there."  
  
Touko nodded. "Hai."  
  
Touko opened the car door and stepped out quietly, but then she paused and looked back inside and the brown haired man. "You'll explain this to Amon, won't you?"

"Explain it to him yourself." Nagira shot back. "I know you won't be killed. You're pregnant, and if you thought for a second that Zaizen would really kill you, you wouldn't meet him."  
  
Touko closed her eyes and let a small sigh escape her lips. "Sayonara."  
  
**----**

A black limousine pulled up to the docks about five minutes later. Zaizen stepped out of the car and straightened his suit as he set off to the large black shape that was dock number five, the one his former wife had bought for their yacht.

Zaizen no longer used the dock, but he still had a key. He walked down and pressed the small brass key into the equally brass lock and twisted it for a second, before he heard a clicking sound. He opened the door and walked inside, where upon he found a narrow pier that led down to a parked white yacht.

And standing on the end of that pier was Touko Masaki, her blonde hair waving behind her in the wind and her hands buried inside her pockets. Zaizen walked down towards his daughter, his own hands inside his own pockets.

"You wanted to talk to me?" Zaizen asked shortly.

"Did you kill my daughter?" Touko asked in a hallowed voice.

"Oh. So, that's what this is about." Zaizen laughed to himself as he closed his eyes. "Is that the only reason you had for interrupting my busy day?"  
  
Touko growled with the anger of a thousand angry angels burning inside her throat. "You did, didn't you?"  
  
Zaizen raised his head to his daughter and opened his eyes. "You fucked that Witch, Amon. I had to clean up your mess. I always have to clean up your messes."

Touko's eyes flashed with a furious fire that would never die. She had heard enough. He was guilty of the worst crime imaginable by mankind, and he should die like the dirty dog he was.

"However, if you must know." Zaizen continued. "I did not murder your daughter."

"Liar!" Touko screamed as she pulled her hands from her pockets to reveal the sleek silver handgun. She aimed and fired three shots, but Zaizen, who had been a Witch Hunter himself before he became manager of Factory, was able to jump behind a large crate of fuel for the yacht and avoid the bullets. He raised himself up and fired his own revolver before Touko could even see that he'd drawn it.

The bullet flew through his daughter's chest and out the other side, spattering warm, burgundy blood all over the ground and the side of the white yacht. Touko's face became a painful mix of sadness and fury, just before she fell to the pier and died.

Zaizen stood and walked slowly towards his daughter's body. His eyes scanning the blonde woman who looked so much like her mother for a moment before he reached down and brushed his hand over her cheek.

"I didn't want to do that." Zaizen said to the lifeless form on the ground beneath him. "Why did you have to love a witch?"

There was a sound of footsteps and Zaizen turned to see Nagira Syunji standing at the door. Nagira paused for a moment as he spotted Zaizen and Touko's body, and then he screamed loudly and went for his gun.

Then he remembered, that he had given his gun to Touko.

Zaizen raised his arm and fired a second shot, which hit Nagira in the distance and caused the brown-haired lawyer to fall to the ground with a thud. Zaizen shook his head and sighed.

"I'm sorry, Touko. I did not mean for it to be this way. You must believe me."  
  
Zaizen stood and tossed his revolver into the water by the pier, and then he down the dock and stopped next to Nagira's body. He could see Nagira was still breathing shallowly, but he didn't show the slightest remorse as he kicked the still living Nagira.

"You tell your brother about this." Zaizen smirked. "You show him Touko's body, and tell him that it's his fault that she's dead."

Zaizen gave one more kick to Nagira, who grunted, before he stepped out the door and walked down towards the black limousine in the distance. After getting in, he lit up a Cuban cigar as the limo sped into the distance and away from the horrible murders that he been committed that night.

**----**

 ****


	11. The Crow in the Raven’s Nest

**Witch Hunter Robin  
False Echoes  
  
Chapter XI – Crow in the Raven's Nest**

**  
Disclaimer**: You know by now I don't own **Witch Hunter Robin®**, which belongs to **Sunrise® **and **Sci-Fi® Channel**. You know this already.Nor do I own the song _False Echoes_; I just borrowed its title.  
  
Storyline, Plot, **Kenny** **Avery©**,** Roger Williams©**, **Kichiro Wantanabee©**, **Rick Richards©**, **Michael Campbell©**, **Rosalind Nichols©** and **Mr. _David Rica_©** are mine.****

**   
Author Notes**:

Just a quick note, Robin doesn't know who Nagira is in this fanfic, because, of course, this is in my series, and in my series she was never hunted by SOLOMON. Just a reminder since I know someone forgot about that last time.

**----------------**

Nagira lay on the ground, his red life blood pooling around him in a small puddle from where the revolver bullet had pierced his skin. He waited until he heard Zaizen's limousine drive away before he made a move to get up.  
  
Grunting from the pain and biting his teeth down into his bottom lip, Nagira hoisted himself up into a sitting stance, but before his chocolate eyes could even begin to adjust to the blood loss and pounding pain in his head, he fell back downwards onto the cold wooden dock and closed his eyes once more from pure exhaustion.

The idea that Touko lay dead not even one hundred yards away stuck into his heart like a bladed metal knife, and he felt the pain of a thousand heartbreaks mustering up inside his chest.   
  
She was dead? Touko Masaki was dead? No. That could not be.

Biting down so hard his lips ripped and his mouth was squirted with warm blood, Nagira was able to push himself up once more, and this time stay there. His eyes, which were blurred and covered in a sticky gray sap, looked around towards the limp form of Touko, and he felt his heart fall.

Nagira's head was throbbing, the pain shot from his hip, where he'd taken the bullet, up the back of his spine and into his skull. It was excruciating beyond any he'd felt in many years, and his vision split and fogged over. Fighting with every bit of strength left in his body, Nagira was able to launch himself forward and land on his stomach. His chin banged into the cold dock painfully and a surging jolt of white hot pain flew to his head once more, this time so severe that he had to cry out.

Nagira cursed and pushed himself shakily to his arms. He could not walk, obviously, for he could barley keep his eyes open. So instead he began to crawl. He could not even drag himself on his knees, like a dog; instead he had to scrape his belly across the splintering wooden dock like a snake or a worm. And he felt like a worm.

He had let Touko die.

Every movement he made caused his muscles to hurt more and more in a manor of pain so horrible that no human or animal should be subject to that kind of torture. He could see Touko's dead form, not far now, but as he crawled and crawled, blood oozing from his side, head throbbing in agony, splinters digging into his stomach, it felt like it would take him a lifetime, no, several lifetimes, to reach her.

Growling with fury and frustration, Nagira watched as his vision failed him and the world began to sink into darkness around him. He knew he could not reach Touko's body before he passed out, and a thought had struck him. Even if he could reach her: what then?

She was dead. Her life, and the life of her unborn child, had came to an end the second that bullet punctured her. Her blood had shot from her side like an exploding volcano, and while Nagira had not been there to see her die, he knew from the way her sticky life still coated the once-white yacht at the side.

Groaning with a pain like burning white knives, Nagira was able to reach one of his hands down into his equally blood-stained coat and retrieve the small cell phone that had been tucked away for his calls, and for emergencies.

This qualified as an emergency.

Nagira pulled the phone out and raised it before his blacking eyes and as quickly as his horrible pain would allow he dialed the number to his brother's cell phone. He had to reach Amon. He had to tell Amon. The pain flared up both in his hip and in his head and he almost dropped the cell phone, which would have been dropping his only chance for survival, but some whim of strength kept him hanging on.

He watched as the small clear buttons that were painted black on top with minuscule numbers glowed with an eerie green in the night air and he heard the sound of ringing. At first he thought perhaps it was the ringing in his ears, or maybe the sound of death ringing in his mind, but it was only the ring of Amon's cell somewhere in the night.

After four such rings, he heard a cold, unforgiving voice speak before his ears."Karasuma, is that you?"  
  
Nagira tried to speak his brother's name, but no sound came from his mouth. Instead there was only a choking sound and a small dribble of blood from the corner which sailed down to his chin slowly, making his skin sticky and wet.

"Karasuma?" Amon repeated, anger seeping into the normally emotionless tone.  
  
"A-Amon." Nagira was able to manage at last.

There was the sound of silence, and in the brief moment without noise, Nagira's pain flared up once more and he realized then and there that he would not stay awake to explain everything to Amon. He tried to speak, he tried to tell him the whole sad story, but all that came from his lips was more blood.

"Nagira? Is Touko with you? Where are you?" The sound in Amon's voice was foreign, and at first Nagira thought that perhaps it was not Amon who had spoken those words, but the same icy chill was behind them and he knew it was.

"D-d-d." The word 'docks' would not come from Nagira's throat. Even if it would have, there were thousands of places in Tokyo that could have been 'docks'. He had to say 'Masaki Docks', if Amon was to help him. "Dock."

Dock. Well it was a start.

But as the darkness before his eyes increased Nagira realized all at once that he did not have time to waste, and that such a feeble start was fruitless and useless to his cause. Nagira mustered up all that remained of what was once called 'strength' and he forced himself, willing with his entire mind, to speak the words Amon needed to hear to save his life.

"Mas-s-s-aki dock."

And then his power failed him, and Nagira's eyes closed. Blackness engulfed his world and sleep consumed his soul.

Nagira was not dead.

Yet.

**----**

The sun had fallen from the sky not long ago, around the same time Touko had fallen from life. It was dark now and the blackness that swirled and engulfed the city of Tokyo. None but the neon lights of the streets flashed and broke the black that enveloped the night sky.

Moving silently were three figures. Each of them wearing black jumpsuits that consisted of sweats with bullet-proof vest over their chest, arm and leg guards that held on strong protecting them from anything that may come flying from a gun. They also wore gas masks and carried small black bags slung over their shoulders.

Raven's Flat loomed in the distance like an ominous vision of the past in the eyes, or in Rica's case empty sockets. The three figures were slowly moving towards the building in an elite military fashion. Each of them carried different weapons.

Rica, who was running towards the front gates of the flat, was carrying a small machine gun, bought off the Tokyo Underground Black-market. It was sleek and shiny and as black as the swirling darkness around them on all sides. Tucked into his belt was the large silver revolver that looked like a cross between the guns of John Wayne and Vash.

"Snoopy to Bulldog, you there Avery?" Rica called into the walkie-talkie chip installed inside his gas mask. It took a second but soon the static-filled reply of Kenny Avery was heard over the air.

"I'm here Rica. Bulldog in position."   
  
Kenny, whose wavy blonde hair was hidden by the black gas mask, was running towards the flat from the opposite side as Rica. Rica could not be harmed by bullets or Orbo, so he would go in the front, while Avery went in the back and provided covert fire. His job was to install the explosives. He still had his New York nine millimeter tucked into his belt, but in his hands was an Aun. 12 Gauge Automatic Shotgun.Kenny hated Rica from the day he met him in Charles Calypso's New Orleans's mansion, and he hated to admit it, but Rica sure knew what he was doing when he planned this operation.

"Good." Rica breathed quietly into the headset. "Snoopy to Weiner Dog, you there Weiner?"

Across the darkened grass and over the pitch black asphalt, in a large, unmarked, black van sitting on the curb, Roger Williams smirked and acknowledged his new "boss" over his own headset. He wasn't really a combat man, more of a computer expert. He sat inside the van typing away on a large, fancy piece of hardware that was wired specifically for hacking.

"I'm here Rica, but I'm having problems."  
  
Rica's reply came swiftly and it was full of an icy warning. "What problems?"

"I was able to sever the building alarms, and I cut their connection to SOLOMON HQ and to the Factory, but I can't hack into their central databank processor."

Rica blinked inside his black suit and cursed quietly into the headset. Not over what the news was, but over how it was said. "Dammit Williams, stop speaking nerd-lingo."

William frowned and explained once again. "I can't hack their computers. Whoever installed their firewall knew what they were doing."  
  
Rica cursed and whispered something that sounded strangely like 'Michael' but made no move to speak further. He was here for revenge against the STN-J, and he wouldn't let some computer nerd technical bullshit stop him from killing his enemies in a primitive fashion that dated back to hundreds of years.

"Just keep trying." He spat, his hallow voice as cold as knives made completely of frigid ice. Then he cast his eyeless sight across the way where he could see the silhouette of Kenny Avery in the distance. His eyeless vision then moved to the guards. Two men in Factory suits with guns.

The regular guard, like the rest of the regular STN-J, had been given until January First off of work.

Rica cocked his gun with one swift movement and was silent about it except for the light clicking sound of a bullet moving into the chamber. He growled and ran towards the gate. The twin guards by the elevator saw his shadow just as Rica's finger squeezed the trigger.

A barrage of silver bullets went flying towards the flat. They struck the chains that held the gate closed and broke them into shreds, sending the crumpled steel to the ground. The clang was loud, but not loud enough to be heard over the gunshots. The two guards raised their own guns, but they were both swept over by the sea of bullets before they could fire back.

"Move Avery, they know we're here, they'll call for backup."

Running to the elevator Rica climbed inside and hit the button, sending the golden gates shut and beginning to move him upwards slowly to the all-too-familiar room that wound undoubtedly house more armed enemies.

Back on the ground Avery made quick work of getting through the gate and running towards the walls of the flat. He dropped his shotgun on the ground and unzipped his black gym bag that had been draped over his shoulder. His gloved hands shot inside quickly and pulled up explosives, which he made a fast job of applying to the wall with the sticky wax pack in his pocket.

After applying the bomb to the wall he pressed a small button on the side, and tiny green numbers that read "10:00" appeared on the screen. Rica would have only ten minutes to finish upstairs. Of course the blast wasn't likely to kill the undead zombie who had survived so much already.

Running down into the hall before the elevator, Kenny set up two more bomb charges at either wall of the small porch. Each of them was set for ten minutes as well. He'd activate the countdown as soon as all twelve charges were in place. Then, running so to keep on his time schedule, he ran to install number four.

Meanwhile the elevator had reached its destination. Rica was shaking with excitement as he arrived. He expected to see Amon and Doujima standing on the other side of the door, with that damned fire brat Robin at their side. He expected to kill them now and get revenge.

He did not expect on it being a vacation.

The elevator door opened and Rica found more Factory agents, along with a handful of scientist standing around the room as well. Many heads turned and many guns fired at Rica, but the bullets would do nothing. He ignored the many prickling pains that appeared over his body as the guns fired and he instead shot his hand into his own black gym bag and pulled out a large gas canister. He then threw the canister into the room and many Factory agents ran with a shout of "Fire in the hole!"

There was a blast, but it was not of fire. It was of a thick silvery-fog that had clouded the room. The many unprotected scientists began to choke and cry with tears and pain in their throats. It was obvious that the gas grenade had done its job. The Factory Agents, however, who wore gas-proof suits like Rica's, continued to fire at him.

"Bad dog." Rica growled and pulled up his machine gun once more. He opened fire on the room quickly and watched as bullets sailed through the air and cut down men where they stood. They ended lives, destroyed computers, and broke windows. Then Rica ran across the room to the one computer that had not been destroyed in the main room.

He wanted to know where the STN-J members were.

He scanned the computer screen and he saw an interesting file. It was open, and called "Orbo Production V. 4.7". His eyeless sight scanned over the screen and suddenly he gave a gasp. It was the recipe for Orbo. A small grin crossed his evil face as he realized just how important this could be, and he quickly shot a hand into his pocket and pulled out a small floppy disk that had been brought along in case there was anything useful on the STN-J computers.

The second he inserted the disk into the computer, however, the file closed and a small web cam of Takuma Zaizen that had been recorded months ago popped up.

"If you're seeing this it means you tried to download from my portable Factory Computer. The one that is moved from the Factory to Raven's Flat. Now if this is Michael, you will be shot. If this is anyone else, I suggest you leave before my personal get there, or you too will be shot. Have a nice day."  
  
Zaizen disappeared off the screen. It wasn't because the message was done; it was because Rica had shot the monitor out of anger. He may have lost the Orbo recipe, but he didn't mind. He had still destroyed Raven's Flat's personnel. "Rica, the ten second charges are in place. I'm waiting on you to detonate." Avery's voice came over the headset installed in the gas mask. Rica flashed his smug smile beneath the dark mask and he ran towards the elevator. He got inside and was quickly on his way down.

A moment later Rica stepped out back onto the porch and spotted Avery, who stood near the gates of the Flat with a small detonator in one hand, and his nine millimeter in the other. Rica gave a nod and began to run away from the flat.

Ten . . .Rica was running towards the gates.Nine, Eight, Seven . . .

Rica was almost there now.

Six, Five, Four . . .

Rica reached the gate and watched Kenny, who was already halfway across the street. Rica laughed and began to run that direction.

Three, Two . . .

Rica stopped and turned around, casting his eyeless vision towards the Flat behind him. He watched as the last second ticked away.

One.

The swirling blackness and unnatural silence that was Night in Tokyo, Japan was suddenly broke by a noise louder than any gunshot or car crash, and a flash of fire that licked its yellow tongue high into the air as it consumed Raven's Flat.

Less than ten seconds later, in the time it took for Rica to reach the street originally, the entire building was ablaze with huge orange flames and it had begun to collapse to the ground, bringing with it millions in hardware and weaponry, and the lifeless bodies of everyone inside.

Rica unhooked his mask and let it fall to the ground as the sweet night air blew over his handsome American face. The wind blew through his short dark hair and his tongue roamed over his small white teeth. His pale lips twisted then, into a large, smug smile.

Raven's Flat was no more.

**----**

Robin was almost too quiet sitting on the couch, Michael thought.

The redheaded hacker was standing in the kitchen, leaning his elbows on the counter and his chin in the palms of his hands. His eyes, as blue as the morning sky, were looking across Touko's apartment at the person he loved. She sat there so quietly that it was unnatural and unnerving.

"I'm sure they're fine." Michael called over towards her, and he didn't need to say who he was talking about. He meant Touko and Nagira, he meant Karasuma and Amon. He meant everyone who had been here and left them alone with many questions that needed answers too.

"I know." Robin replied in a quiet, sad voice. She was sitting on the couch with her hands folded in her lap. Her pond green eyes were looking across the remainder of the room towards the window, which showed the now black night sky. She said that she knew they were fine, but she didn't believe it.

Karasuma had been too scared. Robin was worried.

Michael gave a small sigh in the bottom of his throat, but it was so quiet that he doubted Robin could hear it. He crossed across the room quickly and soon found that he was sitting on the tan couch next to Robin, and the next thing either of them knew one of his hands was across her petite shoulders, pulling her closer to him.

"I've never seen Karasuma so afraid." Robin explained as she caved in and allowed her head to be gently leaned against Michael's shoulder. She wasn't the kind of woman that needed a big strong man to comfort her (and Michael wasn't exactly the typical big strong boyfriend) but she did enjoy the warmth of his body against hers, and sometimes it helped her forget what a harsh life she led.

"I know." Michael replied. "Karasuma-san is strong. Whatever it was she scryed, she didn't like it. But she called Amon. I'm sure Touko-san will be fine. When has Amon ever let us down?"  
  
Robin nodded warmly from his side and she couldn't help but feel her stomach loosen. Amon had never been one to give in to anything. He was a fighter. He was cold and quiet, and even a bit shy (or so Robin thought) but he wasn't a quitter. He'd protect Touko and Nagira.

"You're right." Robin said in her same saddened voice. She really was a grim little girl. Gothic and dark to most outsiders, but she had a warm heart that Michael could see. If not for the fact she was a Witch and was doomed to live her life hunting other witches, she'd probably be one of the sweetest teenagers on the planet.

"Of course I am." Michael smiled. "But you don't have to take my word for it."  
  
Michael stood up, not really liking the idea of releasing Robin or stopping their little cuddling session that had started, for he truly enjoyed the time they spent together doing cutesy couple things, but he also knew they had to spend time doing their job, or in this case, doing something similar to their job."Can you find them, Michael?" Robin asked quietly, standing up and walking over towards the hacker, who had, of course, found his way to Touko's computer and was already trying to hack his way into his computer back at Raven's Flat.  
  
"Just give me a second to get online with the Flat and I'll search for Karasuma-san's communicator." The hacker spoke as his nimble fingers fell onto the black keys that housed white letters and numbers scratched onto their surface. There was silence for a second in which neither of the young lovers spoke, which was finally broken by Michael's confused curse."What is it?" Robin asked worriedly. Her face was filled with both curiosity and questioning. What was it that had Michael so worked up?  
  
"I don't know." Michael said at last. "I can't connect to the hard drive."

Robin shrugged, not aware of what this meant really. "Maybe they blocked you."  
  
Michael gave an annoyed sigh and shook his orange-haired head. "This isn't an IM, they can't block me. It's like all the systems at the Flat are down."

Robin blinked once more. "Maybe the power went off."

"The Flat has a backup generator." Michael explained as his eyes continued to roam the computer monitor. "Besides, we're on the same city grid as the Flat, we'd have no power too."

Robin was beginning to see why Michael was so worried. "Then what could have done this Michael?"  
  
Michael shook his head. He didn't know. His eyes roamed to Robin's face. It held a worried look buried behind her teal eyes. He knew she was not concerned with the Flat, but with the possibility they could not reach Karasuma, who had not returned any of their calls.  
  
"Gomen." Michael spoke as his eyes closed. "I can't do a thing without being on the network."

Robin shook her head and cupped one of Michael's cheeks in her petite hand. He opened his eyes and found that they were staring directly into her own. Michael's sadness and worry melted away as she held him in her loving gaze.

"It's okay."  
  
Robin ran her hand down his cheek and let it finally slide off his face as it fell to his shoulder. He smiled back at her and wished that he could ease her pain as she had destroyed his.

"We'll find them, I promise."

The two youths held one another in a silent stare for a moment, and both of them found that their hormones were moving their faces closer together by the second. Their lips were inching closer, and neither of them fought against the nature of the kiss as it consumed them.

Then the phone rang.

The two broke apart much too early for themselves or their hormones to be happy and both of them blushed deep crimson hues in their cheeks as Michael moved his hand over to the table and picked up the telephone.

"Masaki residence." He spoke, but his eyes and attention were still on Robin.  
  
"Michael, I need directions to the Masaki Docks."   
  
The unrelenting coldness that was the voice of Amon was now in Michael's ears, and it pierced his dream-like stare at his lover and brought him back into reality with a crashing response."Amon!" Michael cried out in surprise.  
  
"Amon?" Robin echoed him.

"I don't have time Michael, I need directions." Amon repeated in a voice so cold he sounded more frightening than he even had before.

"I don't have them." Michael spoke rather stupidly and uncharacteristically.

"Get them off your computer." Amon spat so icily that the hacker's spine froze.

"The computer is offline, Amon where are you—"  
  
"Damn."

And Amon's voice was replaced by a dial tone. Michael allowed a sweatdrop to fall down his face as he sighed and hung up the phone. Their only clue was the Masaki docks, but Michael already knew that Robin would want to go looking for them the second she found out what Amon had said.  
  
"Let's go." Michael said, standing up and reaching for his coat off the rack.

**----**

The black car that carried Amon from place to place finally found its way outside the Masaki covered docks, and its dark driver stepped out and shot himself like a bullet towards the still open door beneath the large black tarp hood.

His powerful legs carried him swiftly like an Olympic runner towards the finish line. In his hand, however, was no baton, but a gun, cocked and loaded. The dark haired hunter's jacket was fluttering in the equally dark sky behind him, and his hair flew out to match it.

Finally, panting slightly as he arrived, Amon pushed himself through the door into the insides. Everything was dark, the water, the wooden pier, and the bodies that lay on it. His eyes first noticed Nagira, who was closest to him. His white fur coat was stained with a dark stain that resembled blood, and in a heartbeat Amon was down next to his brother's form.  
  
"Nagira!" Amon spoke coldly. "Nagira wake up!"

Amon's voice was not full or concern or fear, it was not panicked or anxious; it was instead commanding and swift. He was not asking his brother to awaken, he was telling him to. He was ordering him too.

And slowly Nagira's eyes flicked and opened halfway, staring up at Amon. His lips moved but they made no sound. Amon shook his head and pressed his gloved finger onto his brother's mouth.

"Save your strength. Your death will do no one any good."

And yet Nagira did not save his strength. Instead he mustered all that he could spare to force out the word. The name. His lips, blood oozing from the corner and staining them, moved slowly in the form of a word, and Amon, who could lip read, suddenly felt cold.

The word his brother was trying to speak was a lot like 'Touko'.

Almost as if by some unnatural force, Amon's head turned and noticed the body at the end of the pier. His eyes flashed to the blood that pooled beneath her chest and stomach, and to the spatter stains on the side of the white yacht that had been her mothers. He knew instantly that she was dead.

Amon moved away from his brother and arrived, down on his knees, next to Touko's lifeless form. His eyes were tearless as he removed the glove on his left hand and then pressed the pale, bare fingers to the blonde woman's neck.

She was cold.

"Gomen." Amon spoke softly, the icy chill lessening but not gone. It was the first time he'd apologized in years, perhaps the first time since he looked down and touched his mother's dead body in the same way he was rubbing Touko's lifeless cheek.

Amon's eyes roamed down the body he knew so well to the large crimson stain at the front of her blouse. His gloveless hand quickly pushed up the blood-soaked shirt and gently touched the bullet hole that he did not remember.

_Who did this?_

He thought to himself, thinking of every person who could have done this. Many names came to mind. Fletcher, Rica, Nobunaga, Osaka, Zaizen, Sutherland, Connery. He could imagine an endless number of people committing this crime, but he could not think of a reason for Touko to die.

A minute later he heard the sound of footsteps and he turned around, picking up the gun where he had set it down beside Touko's corpse. He fired no shot in the dark, instead he waited for two shadows to appear in the doorway, and when he saw the shadows of the tall hacker and the handle-bar haired hunter, he set the gun down.

"Amon." Robin spoke quietly as she ran over towards him, but stopped as her eyes fell on Nagira's body. She recognized him as the man Touko had left with, the man that Michael had said was Amon's half-brother. Robin turned her pond green eyes towards Amon himself now, and towards the body at his side.

Michael cursed as he realized who the lifeless form at Amon's feet was, and Robin felt a tear well up inside her eyes.

"Amon . . ."  
  
Robin wasted no time in hopping over Nagira's sleeping form and making her way to Amon's side. She dropped down onto her own knees, which were covered by the black skirt and red coat she wore so much, and she turned her pond green eyes to the fallen roommate she had had for five months.

"Amon, Gomen nasai." Robin said sadly, moving one of her small hands towards Amon's face, but he brushed it away.

"I'm fine." Amon said in all sincerity. And he meant it. He was absolutely fine with Touko's death. He accepted death as part of life many years ago when a small boy had been standing over his mother's lifeless body.

Robin had begun to cry, and Amon shook his head and stood, walking away from her and Touko's body and moving towards his brother now. He bent down and scooped Nagira up in his arms, carrying him towards the car.

"Amon, what about Touko-san's body?" Michael asked, though his eyes were on his crying girlfriend, not his boss's dead daughter."I'll be back for it." Amon said at once. "But Nagira is alive, he needs a doctor."

Michael nodded and left Amon alone as he ran over towards Ron and dropped down at her side, wrapping a comforting arm around her shoulder.

Amon didn't look back as he loaded his brother into the backseat of his car and then loaded himself in the driver's seat before speeding off down the road. He had not shed a tear over Touko's death; he had not cursed and asked God why he had taken her from this Earth. He had learned long ago that death could not be changed.

All he could do now was find the bastard who did this and make sure they suffered the same fate as Touko had.

**-------------**


	12. David and Doujima

**Witch Hunter Robin  
False Echoes**

**  
Chapter XII – David and Doujima**

**  
Disclaimer**: You know by now I don't own **Witch Hunter Robin®**, which belongs to **Sunrise® **and **Sci-Fi® Channel**. You know this already.****

Nor do I own the song _False Echoes_; I just borrowed its title.  
  
Storyline, Plot, **Kenny** **Avery©**,** Roger Williams©**, **Kichiro Wantanabee©**, **Rick Richards©**, **Michael Campbell©**, **Rosalind Nichols©** and **Mr. _Jackson_ _David Rica_©** are all mine.****

**   
Author Notes**:

**-------------------**

Doctor Kouga Takawai was an aged man, just entering his forties.

He was a genius in the operating room and saved lives on a daily basis, or he had once. Now he was more of a mentor to the interns, teaching them the things they'd need in order to become legends in the ER once day, like he was.

His once jet-black hair was now peppered with flakes of gray, and that which remained black was much lighter of a shade now. It was clear that the natural aging process had caught up with his body. New wrinkles on his face and a much slower movement.

Currently Kouga was preparing for an operation on a man who was just brought in with a gunshot wound. He stood in his office, throwing one of the white operating aprons on over his normal wear and preparing his hands by washing them and coating them in the teal latex gloves.

His office was neat and organized. There was a large bookshelf where book upon book was stacked up for easy access, and his large oak desk was covered with many piles of papers neatly organized for quick use. Dr. Takawai was the doctor of choice for many important people. Politicians, Wealthy Clients, and even fellow doctors always choose him over anyone else.  
  
He was also an old friend of Nagira Syunji. Which was why he became so surprised when he walked down into the ER to find Syunji was the man on the table with a bullet lodged in his hip and a broken chin. The man who had brought Nagira in, who the nurse had described as "Tall and Ominously Black" had disappeared after Nagira was in the ER with orders to be called on his cell phone when and if Nagira woke up.

Kouga walked over to the operating table and looked down at Nagira's sleeping form. It always amazed him that even people suffering the worst, near-fatal injuries, like Nagira was now, still looked peaceful in their sleep.

Kouga's young wife, Ayame, had once been arrested a few years back, and Nagira had gotten her off with no jail time, only a firm slap on the wrist. It was from that day on that Kouga kept a friendly bond with the mysterious lawyer. So it was only fair that he do his best to save his life.

"What happened?" He asked one of the nurses.

"The man didn't say. He was shot, though."

Kouga cursed under his breath and took a small scalpel knife from the trey his nurse held at his side. Taking a deep intake of oxygen, he plunged the silvery blade into Nagira's hip. He both loved and hated working on people he knew. He loved it because he knew they were in good hands, but he hated it because of the fear he'd make a mistake.

"You better hang on Syunji-san." He muttered. "This'll be a long night."

**----**

"You know, we haven't been out of this apartment in two days?"

Sakaki's apartment was small, but it was also the cheapest place he could find that wasn't completely nasty and unbearable. He had a small room that was supposed to be a kitchen, an even smaller bathroom, and then a living and bed room. Currently the only miniature room in use, however, was the bedroom.

Sakaki and Doujima were lying beneath the green sheet. They had both been on their backs watching the small TV that was directly across from the bed, but now Doujima turned onto her side and looked over at her tired boyfriend, extending a petite arm out and running it through his hair, which, as she found out fast, needed to be washed.

"It hasn't been that long." Sakaki called back as he himself turned onto his side and let his eyes roam over all of Doujima that he could see. It wasn't much. Her blonde hair was untidy and frilly, which wasn't really a good look on her, or so he thought. Her face had a tired look to it, though they had spent the most of their time since Christmas Eve in bed. Her shoulders were bare, except for the twin strings that came up from her nightgown.

"It has too been that long. It was Christmas Eve, and now it's like 2:00am on Christmas. It's been two days."  
  
Sakaki gave a snort to show he didn't understand her logic at all, but Doujima only growled and rolled over to ignore him. Of course she was happy. It was much easier to spend their vacation watching TV, munching on snack food and, "enjoying" themselves. Really it was their new plan. If they stayed in bed all day until work started again, and they didn't answer the door, there was little chance they'd be attacked by the things that go bump in the night.

Unfortunately they didn't count on David Rica.

**----**

The large black van drove quickly down the streets away from the burning ruins of Raven's Flat.

Inside the van, David Rica sat boredly in the back, near where Roger Williams was typing away on the keyboard that was part of the large computer before him. Information was bubbling over on the screen. He wasn't the kind of hacker who could be in and out of the Pentagon's files in less than ten minutes (like Michael was) but he could easily do his job right now.

"Found her." Roger smirked widely and Rica's bored face suddenly twisted into a completely evil glee. He crossed over the edge of the van and came to squat down next to Roger's seat.  
  
"Where?" He asked in his accent, halfway between French and Redneck."We have a report of a Yurika Doujima buying a car from a lot two days ago." Roger said as his eyes scanned over the words on the screen. "It lists an address for her, should we go?"

Rica's pale lips twisted into a trademark smug smile and if he had them he would have narrowed his eyes in glee. They had come here to kill Zaizen, which they would get around to eventually, but it was far more important to David to take out Doujima, the only person ever to defeat him.

"Kenny!" Rica snapped and turned towards the driver's seat where the American with wavy blonde hair was currently steering them towards the new hotel they rented rooms at. (The old one had kicked them out after the shootout. Actually they'd tried to call the police, but Rica shot the people with phones.)

"Yeah, I know. Give me the address Rog."

**----**

The long, ominous shape that was Zaizen's black stretch limousine stopped outside of the tall, square and equally ominous figure of the factory and the murdered stepped out and walked briskly over the ground towards the front door. He had no remorse for the sin he had committed.

The wind blew through Zaizen's short gray hair and he felt a chill on the air that gave him a foreboding feeling inside of his heart. Almost as if something was coming. A storm, perhaps, or something else. Whatever it was Zaizen did not like the feeling.

He walked slowly towards the door of the Factory, but before he was even on the doormat the black steel that separated in from out came swinging open and one of his scientist stepped out. A tall man with brown hair and a white lab coat.  
  
"What is it?" Zaizen demanded right away. His scientist were never allowed to leave the Factory, for fear they would devolve secrets to SOLOMON or to the Witch Organization called H.T.H.   
  
"There's been a incident. . ." The scientist breathed quietly. "At the Flat."

**----**

It happened like clockwork.

The large black van stopped outside the apartment building that Yurika Doujima was listed as a resident at. A few days ago Kichiro had destroyed part of the building, but it was still usable and still in use. The van's large side door opened and David Rica shot out of the side, still in his black SWAT-like suit, but now the mask was gone.

He ran through the dark and dampened alley and up the steps until he was standing inside the apartment building's main hallway. His eyeless sight zoomed quickly to apartment 4E where it was said that Doujima lived at, or at least that's what Roger had said.

Rica ran forward, drawing his large silver revolver and aiming a fierce kick at the doorknob, he kicked it inside and ran into the small red-carpeted apartment. He could see an old reclining chair and a small TV that was tuned to some local telethon. Suddenly Rica could hear footsteps and he spun around, gun ready and his heart ready to take the sweet satisfaction of revenge.

Mrs. Kinoto, a little old lady with bent gray hair who was currently dressed in a large shaggy robe, stepped into the room and looked at Rica as if she didn't know who he was. Rica blinked and lowered the gun, cursing at the fact that he'd gotten the wrong apartment.

"Who are you?" Mrs. Kinoto asked.

"Sorry ma'am." Rica's swift accent, somewhere between French and Redneck, replied. "I was looking for a Yurika Doujima; I must have the wrong apartment."

"Ooh." Mrs. Kinoto looked as if she understood. "Are you another of her little friends? I think she's at that cute boy Haruto's house. They're having sex you know." Then, Kinoto pause and stepped forward, lifting up the corner of her shaggy robe to show her wrinkled leg. "And speaking of sex; is there some way I can help you sailor?"

Rica had an odd expression on his face, somewhere between disgust and anger. Then he laughed and took off his sunglasses, revealing the two eyeless sockets that were crumpled and dry. "Now ma'am, that was by far the sickest thing I've heard in my entire life, and if you weren't so old I'd probably kill you."

With a sigh Rica turned around and exited the apartment, shaking his head. Behind him Mrs. Kinoto sighed, because she'd once again failed to get one of the cute boys.

**----**

"Mommy? What's wrong?"

"Quiet!" The woman hissed at her child in a voice that was like ice-cold snake's venom. She glared at the boy and pushed him down, under the bed, roughly. Amon bumped his head and began to cry, but the hallow face of his mother appeared at the edge of the bed.

"I said quiet you brat!" She hissed, the witch powers in her veins draining away all humanity she had left, and with it any compassion or love she may have carried for her child. Amon was nothing but an annoyance to her. But for some reason the humanity that was so beaten by the insanity still kept the small black haired boy in her heart.

"Mommy--?"  
  
Amon's mother made no move to speak to her child, because no longer was Amon her child. No longer was she a mother, no longer was she human. She was a witch now and the intense power inside her body was too much for her frail sanity, and she had become an insane creature that knew only two things: kill or be killed.

The door came bursting in a second later. The woman hissed and narrowed her dark eyes from behind her dark haired head and the tan colored wall on the side of the man who had come inside exploded, but the man was able to roll aside form the shot.

"You little bitch." Zaizen growled as he stood up once more and squeezed the big black trigger of his big black gun. A long golden bullet flew from the nozzle of the small revolver and it went flying across the room towards Mrs. Syunji. The bullet pierced her pale neck in the front and continued on until it exited the back of her head, sending blood and tiny bits of flesh showering the blue walls behind her.

"MOMMY!"

Amon ran from under the bed towards his mother as she fell, red life-liquid dripping from the hole under her chin. The woman collapsed on the ground, lifeless and cold, her son standing a foot from the body with tears in his young dark eyes. He reached down, falling on his knees, and he shook his mother.

"Mommy."

Amon shook the woman once more, desperate to hear his mother's voice.

"Mommy!"

"She won't answer." Zaizen's curt speaking reached the black-haired boy's ears and he turned around to stare at a young Takuma Zaizen, dressed out in his big black STN-J coat. Zaizen's middle-aged face was smirking and he raised his hand that held the gun and aimed the revolver at small Amon. "A witch must always be hunted."

Amon's young eyes stared down the barrel of the gun and he suddenly realized what happened to his mother. He suddenly realized that this man had killed her, and that she was gone. Amon had never experienced death before and he did not know how to handle it. Zaizen could see the fear and confusion and sadness inside the child's eyes, but he could also see that the child, like his mother, was a witch, or would one day be.

"Takuma, lower that weapon."

Zaizen's eyes shot towards the door of the small hotel room where a second man stood. This man's name was Juliano Colegui, and his dark eyes peered at the younger man from behind short, golden-rimmed glasses.

"Why? The child is a witch." Zaizen growled.

"The child is a child." Juliano spat back, his voice like a freezing steel glove. "And I am your superior officer. Now lower that weapon."

Zaizen only shrugged and lowered the revolver. "Age doesn't matter if you're a witch."

"The boy is a seed." Juliano corrected as he cast his own eyes down on Amon. "And we do not hunt seeds."

Amon just stood silently, his hands covered in blood from his mother's body, watching as the two men argued over whether or not he should be killed.

**--**

Amon, now aged by twenty-one years since the day of his mother's death at the hands of his current boss, Takuma Zaizen, was behind the wheel of his black car, driving on the black highway in the black night. His world was black.

He was not happy, and he was not human. He was not in love and he was not interested in ever being. He was not a good man and he was sure that hell was the only thing waiting for him when he died.

The black car stopped outside of a small dinner in Tokyo called "Harry's Place", and quickly Amon stepped out of the car and walked over towards the glass door of Harry's. He knew it was late, almost four in the morning, but he also knew he needed something from the diner.

Sticking a small key in the lock and twisting it until he heard a click, Amon opened the door and walked inside, and then down the long dark hallway. He ran down the darkness until he reached a small room in the back of the diner, overlooked by most, but not by him.

Amon placed the small silver key in this new lock and once again unlocked it. After a moments pause he quickly pushed the door inside and walked into the small room which contained many different kinds of wine and beer, and one large case in the back.

Amon made his way to that case and unlocked it, then opened it and took a small black handgun out, as well as several clips. He and Yuji Kobari, the owner of Harry's, had long ago installed the small gun case in case of emergencies so that the STN-J could be armed from this small base.

"Who are you going to kill Amon?"  
  
Amon didn't even blink as Miho Karasuma's voice floated through the darkness and her young redheaded face appeared at the door of the small backroom. Amon ignored her words and cocked the gun before placing it down inside his coat pocket and picking up a second gun.

"Answer me Amon."  
  
"You tell me." Amon snapped. "You know who killed her, don't you?"

Karasuma sighed and leaned against the door, her arms crossed over her chest and her head lowered to look down at her feet. She didn't want to tell him, but he'd known her for five years. A lot changes in five years. She had gone from a whining, scared schoolgirl who was thrown into the world of witches and murder, to what she hoped was a strong young woman more than able to handle anything the world threw at her.

"Michael called me and had me scry her body. But Amon, trust me, you can't go after him."  
  
Amon turned around after he finished arming himself with the black guns and he stared at Karasuma with his emotionless face and deep cold eyes. She had grown to love those eyes, even if they were so lifeless and empty most of the time. Sighing, Karasuma bit her bottom lip.

"It was Zaizen." Karasuma sighed. "Zaizen killed her."

Amon's face didn't change a bit. It was impossible to tell if this news was a surprise to him or not, because surprise, like so many other emotions, were foreign to Amon and stayed that way. He began to walk towards the door, but before he could Karasuma reached out and put a hand on his shoulder.  
  
"Amon, what's your plan? You're just going to go to the Factory and shoot him?"

Amon shook his head. "I'm not going after Zaizen."  
  
Karasuma's eyes blinked in surprise. "What?"

Amon sighed. Karasuma took a second to identify it as a sigh, as a real sign of emotion and humanity and she blinked, stepping forward.

"Amon?"  
  
Amon's eyes were closed and he made no move to open them. Beneath his icy shell, anger was burning inside his veins, but he did not show it to Karasuma or to anyone. Instead he just turned around and stared at the woman.

"I'm not going after Zaizen." He repeated slowly. "Not yet."

Karasuma's deep blue eyes took in the dark hunter's gaze and she wondered exactly what it was he was doing, but he made no move to devolve any more information. Amon turned around and began to walk out of the room, and Karasuma began to follow him. He turned around to gaze at her for a moment, but it was clear to both of them that she was going to follow him no matter what he said, so he only turned back around and set off towards the door, Karasuma nipping at his heels.

**----**

Sakaki was lying on the bed, boredly clicking channels on the television. His shallow blue eyes scanned over each channel for about three seconds before he clicked it to the next with a small sigh escaping his lips every time he failed to find something good. CNN, infomercials, a local telethon; all the basic crap you can find on television only at four in the morning.

"Haruto, this is boring."   
  
Doujima was still lying at the head of the bed beneath the large dark comforter that was used for a blanket and she sighed. It was really boring when it was late at night with nothing to do, nowhere to go, and nothing to watch.

"Hey I know." Sakaki grinned as he dropped the clicker and jumped back up and crawled over next to Doujima. "Let's order a pizza."  
  
Doujima gave a snort. "It's 4:00am."

"So?"

"No one is open."  
  
"Aww." Sakaki pouted childishly. "But now I want pizza."  
  
Doujima allowed a strange smile to creep onto her lips and she watched Sakaki for a minute, her deep blue eyes staring at him in a way that was brand new for both of them. Sakaki blinked.  
  
"What? What's that look about?"

"You're fun." She laughed. "You're being childish and funny. Why can't you act this way when we're at work?" Doujima asked as she sat up and tilted her head.  
  
"Because at work people try to kill us." Sakaki's sarcasm rolled off his tongue and Doujima merely shrugged.

"Still. If you act this way more our relationship will be better."

Sakaki shrugged. "And if I act this way at work people will kill me. Is that what you want?"  
  
"Better to have fun and die than to be bored and live." Doujima responded sagely.

"Whatever happened to having fun _and_ living?"

Doujima was about to respond to him when there was heard a knock at the door, and both of the blonde teens turned their head to stare at it. Neither of them knew who would be knocking on their door at four in the morning, unless perhaps it was Amon or Karasuma coming to whisk them away to work.

"Who do you suppose—"  
  
But Sakaki never finished his sentence. The door burst off its hinges and fell onto the carpet as a jet of water smashed into it at over one hundred and twenty miles per hour. Sakaki looked up in surprise and Doujima moved a hand under the pillows where she drew out a small black handgun that they'd both agreed to keep there in case of emergencies.

Rica smirked as he entered the room, his silver revolver drawn and in his hand,  a smug smile on his pale lips, and his dark glasses sitting on the edge of his nose just beneath his short, trimmed black hair.

"Holy shit!" Sakaki screamed as he recognized the man who stood before them and he began to scuttle backwards, in an almost crab-like way. Doujima had a look of pure horror on her face, but wasted no time in firing all seven shots from the gun into Rica's pale face.   
  
The bullets sailed into Rica's head and broke his sunglasses, but the smug New Orleans native didn't move an inch as they sailed harmlessly through his head, which had already begun to seal back up.

"Now that isn't going to work this time, my dear, sweet little puppy." Rica smiled as he walked slowly towards Doujima, who looked even more frightened than before and only sat on the bed, half-naked, shaking, sweating, and pulling the trigger of the gun again and again as if it would give her some protection, despite the fact bullets didn't work on Rica and the gun was out of them anyway.

Sakaki growled and jumped upward, throwing his arms around Rica's waist and trying to knock him to the ground. Rica however aimed a quick blow to the back of Sakaki's head with the butt of his pistol, and the blonde youth fell to the ground with a 'thud'.

"Sakaki!" Doujima screamed, but she could make no move. Rica smirked and raised his gun, aiming it at Doujima and making the universal 'Shh' sign by pressing his index finger to his smug-smiling lips.

"We're going to have some fun." Rica laughed as he lowered the gun from Doujima, and aimed it at Sakaki's unconscious form. Doujima's blue eyes were filled with fears and tears and she could do nothing but slump back against the pillows crying, wishing for some way out of this.

This was what David Rica had been waiting for all along.

**----**


	13. Love, Marriage and Zombies

**Witch Hunter Robin  
False Echoes  
  
Chapter XIII - Love, Marriage and Zombies**

**Disclaimer**: You know by now I don't own Witch Hunter Robin®, which belongs to Sunrise® and Sci-Fi® Channel. You know this already.  
  
Nor do I own the song _False Echoes_; I just borrowed its title.  
  
Storyline, Plot, Kenny Avery©, Roger Williams©, Kichiro Wantanabee©, Rick Richards©, Michael Campbell©, Rosalind Nichols© and Mr. Jackson David Rica© are all mine.  
   
 -------------------  
  
Robin was still a emotional wreck.  
  
Her pond green eyes, usually nothing more than a quiet stare that held her emotions in check, were now filled with tears and closed partially as more salty liquid feel from them, running down her cheeks. She sat silently in the passenger seat of the car, her eyes flashing outside the window in the strange, almost eerie darkness of Christmas Morning.  
  
This was no merry Christmas for her, this was like Christmas in Hell. She was filled with the unbearable sadness from Touko's death, and she constantly questioned it. She had seen many people die in her short life, but somehow she had never before seen a friend dead. And to see Touko's lifeless form on the ground . . .  
  
"Robin."  
  
Michael's hand was suddenly upon her shoulder, giving her a gentle squeeze. His voice was hoarse with a mixture of pain and sadness, which came from a mixture of the pain from seeing Touko dead, and his heart breaking every time Robin shed a tear. He hated the fact Touko was gone, and he hated the fact that Robin was sad.  
  
Robin made no move to answer her lover, and instead she only continued out the window. She hadn't thought about death much before. Death. That was not the word for what happened to Touko Masaki. She had been killed. It was on thing to kill a witch who would abuse their power for their own purposes, but to kill a ordinary woman, and a woman as kind as Touko, that was a crime against nature.  
  
Michael sighed as he realized it was no good trying to calm her down, because Robin was not going to be calmed down. She was upset. More upset than he'd ever seen her before. He had watched as she killed people, and he had watched when she had been shot by a friend, and he had watched when she admitted to losing her status as a nun because she had taken a life, and he had seen her cry.  
  
But this was not crying.  
  
This was sobbing.  
  
Suddenly the car came to a stop and Robin turned her head to see a apartment complex. She had never been here before, but she knew where they were, it was Sakaki's apartment building. Michael sighed and looked at her, his sky blue eyes, shaded by the orange glasses, staring at her with tears forming, and Robin sighed. She was making Michael sad and she could not stand to do that.  
  
"Gomen." Robin whispered quietly, remembering her Japanese for once.  
  
"Me too." Michael mumbled back as he stepped out of the car.  
  
The two teens walked quietly up the stairs of the building and quickly made their way up the hallways until they reached the topmost level of the complex, where Haruto's apartment sat at the end of a dark hallway. Yet as they approached the hallway, they saw a blonde haired man leaning against a wall with a small black gun in his hand. Robin tensed and arched her shoulders. Her hand went down to her pocket and pulled out the small glasses she valued so much, reaching up and slipping them over her nose.  
  
As they approached, the blonde spotted them and he turned around. He spoke quickly and nervously, almost as if he was afraid something would happen if they didn't leave very, very fast.  
  
"Sorry, this area is off-limits. Police business." He said quickly.  
  
"Can I see a badge?" Michael asked with a certain hint of sarcasm in his voice, his body weight shifted onto one leg and he tilted himself. The blonde wasn't amused.  
  
"Kenny, come give me a hand with these -- PUPPIES!"  
  
Suddenly both Michael and Robin shot their heads up, a new spark of fear inside their eyes as they recognized that cry of 'puppies', almost like a child spotting a small group of dogs on the street. They knew that accent, somewhere between redneck, French and Irish, and they knew that man who stood behind the blonde in the dark sunglasses and the tiny haircut.  
  
David Rica had a amused smirk on his face, and he appeared to happy. His short black hair, his empty eye sockets behind the dark sunglasses that hung loosely off his head (he had brought a extra pair) and the thin, incredibly smug, smile that he wore on his pale lips. It was all the same horrific things that Robin and Michael remembered all to well from before.  
  
"Shit." Michael breathed quietly.  
  
The next few things happened very fast. Robin narrowed her eyes and suddenly the dark hallway that Kenny and David stood inside was ablaze with bright orange flames, their yellow tongues dancing over the ground and walls, licking up anything and everything that their burning desire would allow. Kenny screamed, but a split second later bright, clear water exploded inside the hallway and killed the dancing yellow tongues and their burning oranges mouthes. Kenny, who had realized very quickly he was out of his league, turned and ran as far as his feet would carry him.  
  
"Michael, go." Robin commanded quietly to the boy behind her. Michael began to protest, but he saw Robin, who stood crouching with her eyes narrowed and her brows quirked and he realized that, like Kenny, he could be no help here. He could not tackle the powers of the craft, for while he was the descendant of a witch, he was only a seed, and his powers could help him not.  
  
Michael turned and ran, the cold night breeze blowing in his hair and his orange-sighted world suddenly exploded with the glowing yellow behind him, but he did not turn. He did not turn around when he heard the flames go out with a fizz, and he did not turn when a second yellow blaze flashed behind him.  
  
Michael had just reached the bottom of the stairs when he saw it. A man, tall, and built like a football player who had slightly let himself go, with dark brown hair and eerie eyes, a color that was darker than black, stood. He wore only a small hospital apron, like the kind used on a corpse in the morgue, and he carried in his hand a long, black rapier sword.  
  
Kichiro Wantanabee, or whatever was left of him, stood with a snarl and a growl at the bottom of the stairs. He looked up at Michael for a moment with those odd dark eyes, and then he raised the sword up to the light. It was then that Michael Lee realized where he'd seen that sword before, but quickly he shook his head. That was impossible.  
  
"CAMPBELL!" Kichiro growled in twin voices. One was his own, a cold draw, and the other was a high, heated growl, which belonged to Rick Richards, or Jack the Ripper as he had been known more commonly in his own time.  
  
Maybe it wasn't so impossible after all.  
  
Michael didn't have time to react as Sakaki's father jumped upward, slashing that sword out in front of him. Michael threw up his arm, but it was too late, and the edge of his right arm was cut neatly by the blade, a thick red spray of blood shooting from the new cut like a soda can that had been shaken before being opened.  
  
--  
  
Robin's body was covered in a combination of sweat and water, sweat from jumping around and being so close to her own flaming craft, and water from the horribly painful hit she had taken from one of Rica's jets of the clear liquid.  
  
"This is fun. I've missed our little fights." David smirked as he ran a hand through his hair. He still looked alright, for his skin healed every time she was able to slash at it with her biting flames, but his clothes were burnt and torn, and Robin knew she had got some good hits on him. Unfortunately she also knew that unless she completely destroyed his body, Rica could heal from anything that she threw at him.  
  
Robin was about to try another blast of her craft when a scream pierced the night air and she felt her heart shatter in a instant. The scream was the same horrible sound she had heard when she had killed Michael inside the museum, and now she was hearing it once again. Ignoring Rica completely, Robin turned around and began to run, but Rica's jet of water caught the back of her head and sent her flying into the ground, smashing her pretty face into the cold ground and causing her own red blood to seep from her nose.  
  
As Robin lifted her head up, she saw Michael appear in the edge of the hallway. He was running quickly, clutching his right arm, a large red stream of blood running from under his fingers. Then from behind him she saw a second man running. She recognized him as the man Amon and Karasuma had killed in the museum a few days ago, and she saw the sword as well.  
  
"You cannot escape us, Campbell!" Kichiro growled in both voices.  
  
"I can try." Michael shot back angrily, but he skidded to a halt as he saw Robin lying on the ground with her own blood smearing her face. Rica stood in amusement behind her and grinned.  
  
"Kichiro, I wondered what happened to you ol' buddy!"  
  
Kichiro looked up at Rica for a moment and then he tilted his head. "We know not who this Kichiro is. We is here for Campbell."  
  
Rica quirked his eyebrow over the empty socket. "Kichiro, what the hell are you playing at?"  
  
Kichiro growled, once again in the twin voices, as his eyes blacker than black looked at David Rica, who had no eyes at all. The two villains faced one another in the cold night of black air and neon lights.  
  
"Campbell, now we shall -- Campbell?" Kichiro had suddenly noticed that Michael was no longer before him, and a second later Rica realized that Robin was missing too. He quickly turned his head towards Kichiro.  
  
"You let my puppies escape!" He growled.  
  
"We care not for dogs. You have delayed our revenge on Campbell. You die."  
  
Kichiro ran towards Rica, but he raised his arm and held the long silver revolver in his hand. With a smirking smile he pulled the trigger and fired the bullets into Kichiro's face, breaking the skin and causing the mammoth of a man to fall backwards onto the ground. The body had already been drained of blood at the morgue, and so none ran out.  
  
"Too bad." Rica laughed.  
  
And then the body stood up.  
  
Kichiro drew himself back up to his full, rather intimidating stature, his eyes still glowing blacker than black, despite the fact his face was cut into ribbons by the bullets that Rica had shot into it. He picked up that old black sword and he growled something awful in his salty voice.  
  
"You annoy me, little man." Kichiro sneered.  
  
"Oh, hell no!" Rica snapped. "I am the only zombie in this town, buddy!"  
  
A jet of water came flying and smashed into Kichiro's chest, sending him flying backwards once again, but Kichiro threw his sword forward and it went straight into Rica's chest, knocking him backwards and impaling the sword tip into the wall behind him, which acted like a nail, keeping Rica in the wall.  
  
--  
  
While Rica and Kichiro had been growling at one another, Michael had grabbed his lover by the back and helped her up. The two of them took a chance and quickly ran into the open door crack of Sakaki's apartment. Once inside the doorway, Michael leaned against the wall, his eyes closed and his mouth making a small whimpering sound. The bleeding on his arm wasn't stopping.  
  
"Michael, what --?"  
  
"I don't know." He shook his head before she had even finished her question. "Robin we have to get" -- Michael paused as a wave of pain rolled over his body and he held back the desire to vomit -- "out of here."  
  
"Michael? Is that you?"  
  
Sakaki's voice had suddenly come from the next room, and both Robin and Michael quickly turned their heads. Michael tried to stand up, but Robin pushed him back down and commanded him to stay against the wall. She, however, hurried and ran into the bedroom, where she found Sakaki and Doujima both sitting on the ground, tied up with ropes.  
  
"Thank God." Doujima breathed quietly, who had her eyes closed and leaning on Sakaki's shoulder. Robin narrowed her eyes and a flash of quick, small flames burnt the ropes off them quickly. The two of them, who were still only dressed in their night clothes (something Robin noticed and blushed at) quickly reached down and picked up their STN-J coats.  
  
The three of them then ran to the door, where Michael was still leaning against the wall. He looked up at Sakaki and Doujima, who, once again, wore only boxers and a nightgown under the coats, and he smirked between the pain.  
  
"Have you noticed that every time you two have sex someone tries to kill us?"  
  
Sakaki rolled his eyes, and Robin blushed again, as she was not well vesrsed in topics of this nature. A second later, however, Michael growled in pain as he stood up, still clutching the deep cut on his arm. Robin took a step forward, but Michael waved her away as he stood, bleeding onto the carpet.  
  
"What happened to you?" Sakaki asked. "Rica?"  
  
"No, you're dad." Michael corrected him, and Sakaki's eyes widened in surprise. Then there was a loud noise, and the door of the apartment came crashing inside as Rica came flying through it. The four Witch Hunters all took a step backwards, as the witch on the ground growled and stood. Kichiro could now be seen outside, holding the sword.  
  
"Damn it Kichiro, I'm really regretting training you." Rica sneered as he stood, ignoring the four teens around him and running towards Kichiro. The rhino-shaped witch only laughing in the salty, double laugh and swung the sword.  
  
Robin gasped. Sakaki said nothing but made a odd choking noise. Doujima and Michael both closed their eyes.  
  
The sword had sailed neatly through Rica's neck, severing his head and sending it flying through the air like a football, where it landed on the carpet around in front of the four teens. The body of the New Orleans man fell to the ground, apparently lifeless. Doujima looked as if she was going to throw up, and a second later she turned around and ran towards the corner, where she, in fact, did. Robin closed her eyes, and Michael turned away. Sakaki was doing nothing but staring at his father, who was now looking at the four of them.  
  
"Campbell!" Kichiro growled and ran forward, but Robin was faster. Her eyes flashed open in a split second and flames engulfed Kichiro's body, consuming his dead skin and making him howl. Perhaps he was screaming from pain, or perhaps it was just from surprise. Either way he did stumbled backwards, collided into the railing, and tumble off the edge of the apartment building.  
  
"We should go, now." Michael managed to say between the spasms of pain from his arm. Robin shot a look at him of both pity and fear, but as the word 'Campbell' floated up from the darkness of the night and they realized that Kichiro was, indeed, still out there, they all quickly made their way out the door and past the lifeless body of David Rica.  
  
The echoing footsteps of the four STN-J operatives were heard over the many opening and closing of doors of curious people who wanted to know what all the commotion was about. None of the four really cared if people saw them running, blood still spattering the ground behind them from Michael's wound.  
  
The four of them made good time down the many flights of stairs and ran as fast as their feet would take them to the black car that Michael had driven here in. Michael reached a pale hand into his shorts pocket and pulled out the silvery keys, tossing them to Sakaki, who unlocked the driver's seat door and climbed inside. Doujima quickly made her way to the passenger seat, while Robin and Michael shot into the back, Robin sitting behind Sakaki, and Michael lying across the seats, his head in her lap.  
  
Doujima looked back at the two of them and she had a small, worried expression across her pale face.  
  
"Michael, what happened to your arm?" Robin asked sadly.  
  
"I think he cut a artery. That's the only explanation as to why it's bleeding so much." He growled out as another wave of nausea and pain exploded inside him, and Robin quickly grabbed his shirts sleeve and tore it off him, revealing a long, deep gash on his arm.  
  
"You have to stop the bleeding." Sakaki called back to them as they drove along the quiet city streets, the sound of sirens echoing in the distance as police and firefighters headed towards the apartment complex. "Robin, singe his skin, it'll skive off the blood flow."  
  
Robin glared up at Sakaki as if he was crazy, but of course he didn't know. She hadn't told anyone about what happened in that museum. She could hardly stand to use her craft _around_ Michael, but to turn it on him again, even if only for a brief second, was too scary of a thought for her.  
  
Robin's eyes caught Michael's and they spoke without words. She knew she have to burn him to stop the bleeding, or he would die, and yet she also remembered all to well how she had watched him die from the flames only days ago. Wishing she could close her eyes, Robin sighed and made tiny flames dance on Michael's cut.  
  
Michael screamed in pain, and then passed out.  
  
----  
  
The dark black car that belonged to Amon, the dark leader of the STN-J's Witch Hunting operations, stop in the woods across the street from the secluded building known only as 'Factory.' Amon sat in the driver's seat, his dark, unforgiving eyes scanning the tall walls of Zaizen's stronghold, and beside him Karasuma stirred.  
  
"I thought you weren't going after Zaizen." Karasuma whispered, not looking at the man beside her.  
  
"I'm not." Amon's emotionless voice spoke as he cocked the gun and emptied himself out of the car from the door at his side. Karasuma sighed and shook her head, realizing that whatever idea he had for revenge against Takuma Zaizen, it would not work today.  
  
The dark hunted, much to her surprise, did not go towards the factory, but instead he walked towards deeper into the woods. Karasuma quirked a brow, curious as to just what it was he had cooked up, and she exited the car and began to follow him.  
  
Amon was ahead of her, walking briskly through the woods, but slowing down every now and then in front of a few trees. She didn't know what it was he was hoping to accomplish by doing things like this, but just in case she mimicked his actions down to the letter, and finally when he stopped next to a large rock, she did the same.  
  
"Amon what --"  
  
"Shh!" Amon commanded. He reached out with his gun and tapped the rock three time, then paused and tapped it twice more. Karasuma listened to the sound of the rock being tapped and realized it was hallow. Was this some Factory hideout? She did not know. A moment later the rock lifted up, and a hand came lifting it up, revealing a passageway beneath the dirt.  
  
"Who's she?" A man's voice hissed from the darkness.  
  
"Miho Karasuma. She's with me." Amon called back in a voice that was like a ice cube made of snake's venom.  
  
There was a moment pause, in which Karasuma's training told her she was being watched, and then the man inside the tunnel laughed and let his arm slip away from the rock. Amon caught it before it fell down and he quickly made his way down the dark hole, Karasuma sighed and followed slowly, trying to ignore just how insane this idea seemed to be to her inside her mind.  
  
Slowly she followed Amon down the tunnel into what looked like a sewer system, and she watched as the man in the shadows walked quietly before him. She did not know who these people were, but she wondered instantly if they worked for the Factory, and if they did not, how they could be based so close to it and remain secret from Zaizen's all knowing eyes.  
  
"Is he here?" Amon asked the man leading them.  
  
"Yeah. But he ain't too happy with you."  
  
Amon fell silent and did not speak again for a long time. The sewers (they were sewers) were cold and Karasuma did not like being here. She had been quite confused as to exactly what it was at first, but she could only guess this was some organization. Obviously not as well organized as the STN-J or the Factory, but still a useful place. Or a place where she could die for being a outsider. She didn't know.  
  
"Amon, you made it. Only took you four years."  
  
Karasuma heard a voice speak and he heart suddenly stopped while her mind filled with memories, some good, some bad. The voice was much more hoarse and raspy then she remembered, and the man speaking it was not the handsome, well dressed young man she remembered from her rookie days, but she recognized him right away as Josh Osaka, the former head of the STN-J, and the man who had trained both Amon and Karasuma.  
  
Josh moved his eyes to Karasuma, and he seemed to recognize her. He smirked at the blush in her cheeks and he grinned. "Still partnered with this old guy, eh Miho?"  
  
It was Josh. And yet it could not be. She could not truly believe that this man before her was Josh Osaka, the older brother she had always dreamed of back when she first joined the STN-J. Josh had been so good-looking, and always a pleasure to be around, while this man had a look about him that was so dark and grim it made Amon pale in comparison.  
  
Besides, Josh Osaka had been killed by a witch four years ago.  
  
"Why'd you change your mind, Amon?" Josh asked. "Why now?"  
  
"Zaizen killed Touko." Amon replied coolly. Josh's face didn't change it's expression, but he did shrug and turn around with a tiny, grim laugh.  
  
"Yeah, I know. Sick, ain't it? When a father kills his own daughter. Then again what do you expect from that bastard, eh?"  
  
Amon didn't answer, but at last Karasuma found her voice, which had vanished the second her eyes had fallen onto Josh, and she spoke in a scratchy and soft voice that did not suit her at all.  
  
"Josh?"  
  
Josh turned around and looked at her. His face was different. He had a tiny scar on his forehead and her eyes wandered to it and stared. It was like a small circle, almost like punctured paper after something had gone through it. Josh seemed to catch her stare and began to speak.  
  
"Zaizen shot me four years ago because I was against changing our hunting tactics to accommodate Orbo usage. You see, I found out the truth."  
  
Karasuma blinked. "The truth?"  
  
Josh smiled a grim smile that would have looked proper on Charles Manson, but not on her beloved Josh from those memories. Not on Josh whom she had always felt safe around. Not the Josh who had been the closest she ever had to a mentor, to a brother. Not on her Josh.  
  
"Orbo is made from people." Josh laughed and with that he turned around and vanished into the darkness of the sewers, leaving Karasuma and Amon both thunderstruck with this revelation. She did not know how Amon knew about this place, or how Josh had survived, or what this place even was, but she did know that at that moment both of them were given new information that made their blood go cold and their eyes go wide.  
  
----  
  
Kenny Avery stepped across the balcony of the apartment complex. Burn marks covered the ground, and pools of both water and blood seemed common as well. The police were here, but they were still downstairs where a screaming Kichiro Wantanbee was making a scene. Kenny's eyes scanned the ground for a second, and he quickly spotted the headless body of Rica.  
  
"What the hell happened?" He breathed.  
  
"Kenny, be a good puppy and help me out."  
  
Kenny heard Rica's voice and slowly he walked towards Sakaki's apartment, terrified of what he'd find. And when he found it, he did indeed screamed and jump backwards, as it was the most disturbing thing he'd ever seen.  
  
David Rica's head was lying on the welcome mat of Sakaki's apartment, a pool of blood beneath his severed neck, but his brows above the empty sockets quirked and his lips speaking words. "Kenny, just set me back on my shoulders and I can heal myself."  
  
Kenny went pale. "You gotta be kidding! You're alive? You had your fucking head cut off and you're alive!?"  
  
Rica would have rolled his eyes, if he had any. Instead he gave a bored yawn and once again, slowly, repeated his instructions to the blonde. Kenny obviously didn't want to obey, but he was so terrified that he did so. Grabbing Rica by his ears, Kenny carried the head over to the body and jammed his severed head onto the bloody neck stump. A second later the skin began to grow and merge into once another, and Kenny jumped back as Rica rose to his feet, his head re-attached, and once again very much alive.  
  
"I really hate Kichiro." Rica growled. "C'mon, we have to go find those puppies because he does."  
  
----  
  
Michael's eyes, as blue as the morning sky, opened slowly and he saw a bright light above his head. The pain in his arm was gone, and the first thing that crossed his mind was that this was heaven, and he was, in fact, dead. Then it slowly dawned on him that the light was nothing more than a low, hanging ceiling light, and he was not in heaven, but in a crappy little room that was barren except for the small bed he was lying on, a table and chair in the corner, and a few old posters of bands that had gone out of styles years ago.  
  
"Wha--"  
  
He suddenly felt a hand on his left side, and he turned to see Robin push him back down into the bed. She had a tired smile on her face, and she was looking at him with those pond green eyes so full of love. Michael smiled a bit and allowed himself to land back in the bed.  
  
"We didn't know where else to bring you, Michael, so we decided on your old apartment. Doujima knew the way." Robin explained, and Michael nodded a bit as the memories of the previous events played back in his mind. He was confused but he no longer cared. He only cared about the beautiful blonde who was sitting so close to him on the bed, sighing happily.  
  
"Your arm stopped bleeding. We asked a doctor, he said you'd be fine. He wanted to keep you at the hospital, but we didn't think it would be smart. Kichiro will look there first, and we don't need him finding us yet."  
  
Even as Robin spoke, Michael could pick up the worry in her voice that she tried to disguise and he knew that she had been horribly upset, and probably crying for a long time. He hadn't seen Robin cry very much since he knew her, but lately she had done more and more of it. It made him worry. She needed a break from this world of pain and horrors that she was unfortunate enough to live in.  
  
"Hey Robin, I've got a crazy idea." Michael suddenly said bubbly for no real reason. Robin sighed.  
  
"Michael, the doctor gave you quite a bit of morphine for the pain. Maybe you should sleep it off."  
  
It was Michael's turn to sigh. Yes, he could feel the buzz of morphine inside him, and perhaps the idea he had gotten in his mind was only because he was currently high as a airplane, but he didn't care. Perhaps it was because he was high, but he thought this idea was a great one no matter what his current mental condition.  
  
"Robin, after this is all over and the crazy sword-guy is dead, you want to get married and move away from here?"  
  
Robin made a small choking noise and she stumbled a bit in her step, her face now looking as if she had bright sun-burns on her cheeks. She turned to Michael and, despite the fact she knew it was the pain killers talking, she could feel her heart pounding inside her chest. She looked down at Michael and managed a small smile.  
  
"Michael, you know we can't do that."  
  
"Why?" Michael asked as he took off his glasses and began to play with them absently while staring up at the blonde with his dreamy face. "Why not?"  
  
Robin sighed. She didn't like talking about this. It was making her begin to wish this wasn't just morphine making him say these things. Of course they could not marry, for they were much too young, and even if they did they could not move away because she was a Witch Hunter, and therefore bound to spend the rest of her life working for SOLOMON, or risk becoming a witch, and he could not leave because of Zaizen's law.  
  
"Because we can't Michael. Now you need your rest."  
  
Michael was pouting childishly. "C'mon, marry me and we'll move to England. My aunt has a place by the beach we can use. It'll be fun."  
  
Robin felt tears welling up in her eyes, wishing that her life could really be that simple. She wished she could run off with Michael and live by the beach in England, without having to fight and kill witches, zombies and everything else that went bump in the night. Yet she knew those things would never come true, and instead she turned to Michael and gave him a feeble smile, deciding it was best not to argue with her.  
  
"Sure Michael. Let's go to England. Now rest."  
  
Robin sighed and quickly walked out the door before her incredibly high boyfriend could speak again. She was no longer happy, because she had suddenly realized that she did want to marry Michael, and that if she could she would have meant the yes she'd given him. It was only then she realized that he life was to be void of marriage and love and children and all the things she had never thought about before that moment.  
  
And she began to cry.  
  
-------------------


	14. Samurai Stories

**Witch Hunter Robin  
False Echoes**

** Chapter XIV - Samurai Stories**

**Disclaimer****:** You know by now I don't own Witch Hunter Robin®, which belongs to Sunrise® and Sci-Fi® Channel. You know this already.

Nor do I own the song _False Echoes_; I just borrowed its title.

Storyline, Plot, Kenny Avery©, Roger Williams©, Kichiro Wantanabee©, Rick Richards©, Michael Campbell©, Rosalind Nichols© and David Rica© are all mine.

**Author Notes****:**

Here's fourteen.

-------------------

The small apartment on Delaney street was where Amy Campbell and Tai Lee had come after their wedding, and it was in this tiny apartment where Michael was conceived that very night. It had been here that Amy had been forced to deliver Michael after her water broke while she was home alone, during a storm which had knocked out phone services. It had been in this very room that he now lay that a young baby had been painfully delivered by his mother.

And it was here that the now seventeen year old Michael Lee now lay sleeping peacefully, allowing the large quantity of morphine inside his body to naturally wear off and bring him back into the world of reality. Robin, who had been forced by herself to leave the room while the very high hacker asked her to become his young wife, was now back at his side, sitting on the bed. Her face was strained with tears, as she had been crying once again, this time over the idea of marriage.

She could marry. Yes, she was only fifteen, but it was not considered odd in Japan for someone so young to be wed. She had quickly learned that Japan was a country where the elderly were respected, and the young admired. She could marry him by the law of the country, but not by the law of the office. For while she knew from Karasuma's reading that her boss, Takuma Zaizen, had murdered Touko (something that made her sad just thinking about it), she also knew that Zaizen would be replaced with a new boss.

Kosaka, perhaps, would take his place. That would mean changes. While she, being brought up by a man as strict as Juliano Colgui, had never once questioned Kosaka's orders, she knew many of the others ignored him, feeling that his only real purpose was to boss Hattori around. If Kosaka became the new Administrator it would be bad for Doujima, but hell for Robin. Because Robin knew that Kosaka was deeply against employees becoming involved in one another, and she knew he would forbid inter-office dating, and marriage as well.

After all, SOLOMON wasn't like some offices, where there were legal loop holes and high courts to go too. No, SOLOMON was strict. You did as they say, or you die. It was just that simple. While she doubted very much that Kosaka would ever order her or Michael's death, she knew he would make problems in their relationship. Besides, once she obtained the secret of the craft she was going back to Italy, something she had tried to deny to herself, but something she could not.

Robin's mind turned away from her troubles with her own love life, and back to the subject of Zaizen. Throughout their recent troubles with people like Kichiro Wantanabee and David Rica, she had forgotten the fact that Zaizen was their true enemy. He was the one who killed Touko, and while she could not prove it, she was sure he had done much worse. She often wondered what would happen if SOLOMON ever fought Zaizen, and she was afraid that the STN- J would have to take sides. Of course she knew in the end SOLOMON would win, and she knew that her friends would never fight for Zaizen, she also knew there was no guarantee for their personal safety.

Sighing, Robin tried to shake all thoughts from her mind. All the painful feelings inside her heart and mind were overwhelming her and making her feel as if she had been dropped into a ocean, a deep, black ocean of horrors, and now she had to fight to keep afloat, to keep from sinking into despair and being lost forever. And while the sky was thick and black, and great storms like Rica and Zaizen were still burning overhead, she was not alone. She had people like Michael and Amon who were her life rafts, people she loved and trusted who could protect her.

She sighed once again, but no longer out of the bleak life she led, this time she sighed a happy little content sigh and smiled as Michael grunted in his sleep and rolled on so that he was now facing her. While Robin was never one to get "hung up" on looks, she did see beauty in it's ascetic form. The way the Greeks of old had seen it. And truly Michael was beautiful to her, especially when he was sleeping. Not so much because of his physical form (although she had to admit, he was cute) but because of how peaceful he looked when he was asleep.

Not many realized it, but Michael had the worst luck of all of them when it came to their lives. They took for granted the fact that Michael was trapped in the STN-J. He had had to set and watch as they talk about Harry's and the park and all the places they saw everyday, when they were no more than dreams to the hacker. They also took for granted the fact that between being shot by Rica's henchmen, witnessing the murder of his beloved cousin Jeri, being forced to kill Kita Nobunaga, being lit on fire by the woman he loves, being stalked by a ghost who had currently possessed a dead man's body, and never truly knowing his parents, Michael had the worst luck of any of them.

And yet, even with all his pain, Michael managed to smile all the time. Sometimes just fake smiles to make Robin feel better, but at times like this, when he was asleep and dreaming about things that were innocent and sweet, he had a real smile on his face, and it made Robin smile her own genuine smile at the idea of seeing her most beloved person so happy. It was very rare that Michael was as happy as he seemed to be while he slept, and for some reason, most likely the deep feelings of love she had for him, she leaned down and placed her small lips onto his cheek softly. She could do no wrong around Michael, he made her life perfect. Regardless of the horrible things surrounding them, Michael seemed to make it all go away, even if only for a second.

Doujima stood at the doorway, her body weight all leaned onto one foot as she tilted in the doorway. She gave a small sniff, and couldn't help but let her eyes water a tiny bit as she beamed inside at Robin and Michael. They had something between them that was unlike any relationship she'd ever seen. It wasn't love. Michael and Robin were in love, they were in deep love and would probably stay that way until they were dead and gone, and even then their love would live on. No, what Doujima saw was innocence. They had a free spirited innocence that was so rare in relationships these days that it made her weep. She knew that, if things were different, and if the young lovers before her didn't already have a full plate of witch hunting and surviving, then they would marry. And Doujima suddenly felt as if she had to go find Sakaki, and just be near him.

----

Japan, of course, has a truly remarkable history and most of the world is fascinated with the Japanese customs. With the exceptions of the years 1937- 1945, the world seems to love everything about the country. Their Video Games and Technology is by far better than anything that comes out of the rest of the world. They make most of the cars supplied for most of the countries around the earth, and of course from Star Wars to Halloween costumes, the fame of the Samurai cannot be matched.

The black van stopped outside of a small tea house on the street. It was just a small pub that had been named 'Bushido no Ryu', just as a catchy name. David Rica exited the van and gave a small yawn as he walked forward towards the small tea house. Today he had changed his usual suit and tie look for a long, navy raincoat, the very one he had worn when employed by the STN-A office in New Orleans, Louisiana.

"I'll be back Ken." Rica spat to the driver, who nodded his blonde head in boredom and leaned back into the seat. While Kenny and Roger talked quietly inside the car and complained about their current situation, Rica slowly strolled into the small coffee shop and walked up to the counter, taking a seat.

"Konnichiwa, sir. Can I help you?" The owner, a elderly Japanese man with hair a snowy shade of white and eyes that were like large black coals. Rica smirked behind his sunglasses and began to speak quietly.

"Domo. I'd sit around and ask for some tea if I had the time for games, but I'm a busy man."

A flicker of emotion behind the man's coal-like eyes made the old man seem to come alive with both fear and excitement. He gave a small chuckle and then looked Rica up and down for a few moments before at last he spoke in a low voice.

"What can I do for you?"

"I'm in need of your finest steel." Rica spoke softly, in a voice that reflected the man he truly was. A man with dark desires, but a calm soul.

"You see the Masamune?" The owner of the tea shop said, his voice filled with both awe and amusement.

"I do. You are Oda Masamune, are you not?"

The old man -- Oda -- blinked his coal black eyes and he nodded his head slowly, as if afraid what this revelation of his name would mean. He gave a small yawn and then drew himself up from behind the counter to his full height, and even for a old man nearing his seventies, Oda Masamune was a man who commanded respect to all. He smiled.

"I am actually Oda Tobuwai, but I am all that remains of the Masamune clan of this region of Japan. I myself have no skill in forging swords, not the skill of my ancient kinsman at any rate. Yet there is one remaining."

Rica's pale mouth began to twitch, and slowly the pinkish lips curved themselves into a grim smile. A smile that reflected the perfect twist inside his soul. The perfect combination of black and white that floated inside his mind, lingering just behind the hallowed out sockets and swam around his heart.

"How much?" Rica asked quietly.

Oda Tobuwai smiled, and it was a smile that showed his own malice inside his own soul. He lifted the edge of the counter and allowed Rica to walk through the back, behind the shelf of the small tea bar. Slowly Rica followed Tobuwai down the deep paths that led to a small wooden door at the end of a narrow, tan-painted hallway. After entering the small door, Rica found himself in a darkened room that held a single burning torch on the floor and a long Katana suspended on the wall by two small hooks.

"This sword is not for sale by any money. It shall be given to the one whom is meant to possess it." Oda explained in a almost misty voice as he stared at the sword with a father's pride. Rica would have rolled his eyes, if he had any.

"I'll give you three million American dollars." Rica said swiftly, reaching under his navy raincoat and pulling out a small envelop. Rica quickly unsealed the white paper and pulled out a small napkin with a set of numbers written on it. "This is the access number for a bank account in the Virgin Islands. Check it if you want."

Oda raised a brow and picked up the napkin. He then smirked a rather mischievous smile and walked over to the corner of the room, where he pulled a blanket off a table to reveal a laptop already connected to the Internet.

"May I check the sword while you check the money?" Rica's tone floated across the darkness that engulfed the room.

"But of course."

As Tobuwai slowly typed away on the computer, bringing up a account page from a web-site for a small banking company located in the U.S. portion of the Virgin Islands, Rica walked across the room to the sword. He extended a pale hand and gripped the scabbard tightly, pulling it off the wall and raising it up to eye level. In one swift motion he flicked the blade out of the scabbard and admired the stunning silver. The steel was folded over two hundred times and it was, by far, a wonderful forged sword. Rica set the scabbard back down on the hooks and slowly took the sword into his left hand, while running his right index finger across the blade. Rica felt his finger slice down to the bone at the slightest touch of the sword, and he watched sticky blood ooze from the new, deep gash.

"I love it." Rica laughed.

Oda smirked and turned around, now satisfied himself with the account and his new proof that it was as David had told him. "The sword is yours."

Rica then did something that made Oda confused. Rica sighed disappointedly. Tobuwai cocked a brow and walked over slowly as he slipped he napkin into the pocket of his black shirt. "Why so sad? You have the finest sword in the country."

Rica shrugged. "I had hoped you wouldn't sell it to me, so I'd have a excuse to do this."

Rica quickly spun around on the spot, flashing the sword out beside him and allowing it to sail across Oda Tobuwai's chest, slicing his shirt open. Tobuwai did not flinch as the blade sailed lightly across his clothing and made a perfect tear, although he did look annoyed.

"You did not kill me." Tobuwai inquired.

"Gnaw, but I did make you piss your pants."

----

Sakaki was sitting in the bedroom that had once belonged to Tai and Amy Lee. He sat on the edge of the bed, the clicker in his hand. He was watching a old American movie, and while his English wasn't the best in the world, he knew enough to be able to get the gist of it. The movie was currently depicting a group of badly animated zombies chewing the head off a man in a sports coat.

"What are you doing?" Doujima's voice floated in as she appeared at the doorway. Her eyes held the same tender look they had gotten when she had seen the love between Robin and Michael, and yet she now had a rather mischievous smirk on her lips as her eyes fell on her boyfriend.

"Watching some film about zombies who kill people." Sakaki responded, stating the obvious.

Doujima quirked a brow and walked over, sitting down on the bed next to him with a gentle plop and wrapping a arm around him. They had both borrowed some clothes from Michael's parent's closet and they fit surprisingly well. Doujima enjoyed the soft wool of the pajamas she wore as it rubbed against the old T-shirt Sakaki had picked out.

"Why?" She inquired.

"Between Rica and my dad, I'd kind of like to be prepared." Sakaki responded.

Doujima grabbed the clicker and pulled it away from his grasp. She then clicked off the TV just as the sport's coat wearing man was abandoned for his blonde girlfriend, who was screaming over-dramatically. Pouting a bit, Doujima turned to Sakaki and looked him in his dark sapphire eyes with her own aqua ones.

"What's really bothering you?" She asked softly, tightening the one-armed hug between them.

Sakaki gave a sigh and looked down at the floor. Of course he had already confided in her about his most horrible memories, so he would have to tell her this latest problem. He just hated it. Every time he thought he was rid of his father, that old bastard managed to come back, worse every time.

"I hate him so much." He whispered. "I hate him and he won't go away."

Doujima bit her lip and laid her head down on his shoulder. His pain was radiating through the room, and she could feel the horrible heartache all too well in her own beating chest. "I know. Believe me, I know what it's like to hate someone with all your heart."

Sakaki shook his head. She was talking about Rica, obviously. Yes, he knew Doujima hated Rica, but that wasn't the same. Her hate of Rica stemmed from Rica's abuse of Sakaki, and Rica's attack on Michael, and Rica's general rudeness. Sakaki's hate of his father was so much more. Sakaki hated him for hurting his mother. Sakaki hated him for that horrible day on December, years ago when his mother had met her end. But mostly Sakaki hated Kichiro because he had never been a father. Kichiro hadn't even been a bad father. He wasn't a father at all.

"Rica isn't the same." He breathed.

"I'm not talking about Rica." Doujima explained in a voice barley above a whisper. Sakaki turned to her and saw a new depth in her eyes. A depth that was full of pain beyond any he had ever felt. He started to ask her, but she shook her head and began to explain on her own.

"I . . . I won't say her name. It's too hard. And I can't tell you the story. I've been in therapy ever since . . . listen, forget it--"

"I came home from shopping for a birthday present, only to find my mother's blood smeared on the walls." Sakaki said with a bitter sarcasm. "I think you can tell me what happened to you."

Doujima turned to him as her eyes began to tear up, and she gave him a grim, dark smile. "Yes, but you didn't have to watch your mother die. You didn't watch the life drain from her eyes when Kichiro killed her. You were lucky."

And before he could ask a question, Doujima began to sob. It wasn't one of her fake fits of tears to get her way while on a date, or a actual crying session because they had had a fight or because she had been sad about something. This was a uncontrollable sobbing that had been caused by memories of pure trauma.

Sakaki didn't even bother to ask, he just hugged her.

----

It had been so long since the first dream, Michael had forgotten it.

He had forgotten the rooftop in the black sky. He had forgotten the sheets of icy rain that poured down from the heavens above. He had forgotten the sound of thunder smashing overhead as Robin Sena tried her best to keep breathing, but with no avail.

The second time he had the dream, it was very different.

In his first dream, Sakaki and Doujima had been lying by the door of the room, both of them dead. Now they were gone, their bodies had vanished. David Rica, whom in his first dream had been standing in the doorway with a gun, was still there. Only now he was not alone. He had a redheaded woman Michael didn't recognize with him, she looked European. And he had not only a long silver revolver, but a even longer, even more silvery sword with him.

The tall, burley man with brown hair, who Michael had come to realize was Kichiro Wantanabee after being possessed by Rick Richards, was also gone. Now there stood a old man with a cane and dark glasses, and the black Rapier in his hand. He had taken Kichiro's place as being the possessed man.

"Rosalind is taken from you, and the cycle is repaid." Father Juliano Colegui spoked in both his toneless, aged voice and the cold voice of Rick Richards.

"She is not Rosalind!" Michael screamed as he cradled the still-dying Robin in his arms. Her neck was once again the source of her demise, but this time it had been a slit throat from a sword wound, and not a gun-hole. From the dream, Michael could not tell if it was Juliano or Rica who had cut her, but he knew she was dying.

What was different, mainly, was this time he knew he was dreaming.

"Just go with the flow, Mike." The redheaded woman spoke with a thin accent, somewhere between Scottish and Irish. "Ya'll enjoy your life if you let the lass go."

Michael ignored the woman, and he ignored Rica beside her. Instead he kept his eyes on Robin. Before he had prayed for her to survive, and she had died. This time however she was trying to speak a word. What it was, he could not tell.

"Tell me Robin. . ." Michael pleaded both in his sleep and in his dream. "Tell me Robin!"

"Michael?"

Michael's eyes flashed open and he looked up to see a very confused and slightly pink Robin Sena standing above him. She was alive, and it came as no surprise that he had been dreaming this time. He only wished he had stayed asleep long enough to learn what the dream Robin was trying with all her might to say.

"Sorry." Michael breathed quietly. "Just a dream."

Robin bit her lip and looked down at him with her bottle green eyes full of worry. She ran a petite hand over his smooth cheek and brought it down to cup his chin in her hand's palm. "Michael?"

Michael shook his head. "Don't worry about it."

He didn't want to share the horrible dream with her, because he was sure that the dream would only cause her more pain, and the last thing she needed was pain. She had enough to last for her entire lifetime. Smiling warmly at her, he grinned for a minute before turning around and lying back down, determined to finish the dream.

"I love you." He mumbled softly just before he allowed his eyes to close.

Robin smiled quietly at him.

----

Kichiro was slowly stalking towards Delaney street.

Of course, he really wasn't Kichiro. Kichiro Wantanabee was rotting in hell right now, just the way he was intended to. Instead this creature was just Kichiro's body, with a new, even fouler soul inside of it. The gunshot wounds on Kichiro's face had not healed, and Rick Richards found it annoying that he could go nowhere in this body without people screaming and causing a seen.

Richards could feel the usefulness of this flesh melting away. It was one of his feelings. He could also feel the presence of Michael. By this time Richards did not known nor care if this boy was Michael Campbell, his heir, or just a boy who looked like him, but what was clear was he had to die. That orange-haired fool had taken with him the stop-watch and the bracelet and had already found their secrets.

Richards had waited too long, and been through too much to lose his one chance of revenge now. He refused to let himself die, even if he was dead. He refused to give up his plans to kill Michael a second time. If this body became useless, he'd simply find another one.

The sound of tires scraping over the ground reached his ears. Richards was unused to cars, but he did not care. He gripped the sword -- the sword so precious -- and lifted it up in-front of him. Footsteps clicked on the ground, and from the distance Kichiro saw the figure of David Rica step out.

"Yo." Rica sneered in a all too casual manor. He wore the same dark glasses, and he wore a navy raincoat that bore the SOLOMON crest. In one hand was a black gun with a long clip at the bottom and a short, stubble nozzle. In his other hand was a sword inside a sheath.

"You disturb us." Kichiro's body spoke in both it's salty laugh and in the colder voice of Richards.

"Yeah, I get that a lot." Rica admitted with a smug smirk. Rica set the gun down into the waist-band of his pants and he focused his attention on the Masamune Katana. Quickly flicking the sword out of it's scabbard, he extended it's full, terrifying length. Richards sneered behind the face of Kichiro, and then lifted his own rapier.

"Death to you." Richards shot back.

Rica laughed. "Did you think I bought a sword so we could have a fair fight?"

Richards tilted his head to the side. Before the possessed body or it's possessor had time to react, Rica had taken one hand off the sword hilt and grabbed the gun from his waist. The automatic pistol clicked and fired, ejecting gold-and-black shells as it poured bullets into the dead man's body.

Rica did not fire in the way he would have if his enemy was human. If his enemy had been human, he would have aimed at the chest and head and other places that contained vital organs full of blood. But since Kichiro was without blood and his organs served no purpose, Rica fired at his legs. He watched as the bullets chewed small holes in Kichiro's knees, and by the time the cartridge was empty, the body weight of the huge man caused his upper body to snap off of the torn knees and fall backwards like a broken toy.

"The sword is merely for making sure you don't come back." Rica laughed as he walked over slowly. He lifted the sword and made three quick passes, two of them being used to disconnect the arms for the torso, and the third chopping him at the waist. Kichiro grunted but obviously felt only annoyance and not pain.

"We shall find another body." He spoke.

"Yeah, but by then the puppies will be dead." Rica responded with a gleeful laugh.

-------------------


	15. Setting the Board

**Witch Hunter Robin  
False Echoes  
  
Chapter XV - Setting the Board**

**Disclaimer**: You know by now I don't own Witch Hunter Robin®, which belongs to Sunrise® and Sci-Fi® Channel. You know this already.  
  
Nor do I own the song _False Echoes_; I just borrowed its title.  
  
Storyline, Plot, Kenny Avery©, Roger Williams©, Kichiro Wantanabee©, Rick Richards©, Michael Campbell©, Rosalind Nichols© and Mr. Jackson David Rica© are all mine.  
   
  
-------------------  
  
"These sewers were originally a escape tunnel used by Zaizen when he first built the factory. He thought it would be a good way to get into the wood across the street if he ever had need. The plan was abandoned, though, and he flooded this tunnel with sewage. That didn't stop us."  
  
Josh Osaka, once so handsome and pleasant that a much-younger Miho Karasuma had crushed on him, was now dark and pale and could make even Amon look happy by comparison. Josh was a different kind of dark than Amon, though. Amon was just the typical brooding, depressed fellow from a childhood nightmare that wouldn't leave his mind. But Amon still held faith in some things. Not love, not family and not friendship, but some things were still sacred for Amon. If they weren't, he wouldn't risk so much for so little.  
  
Josh on the other hand was the opposite. Josh was a man who had believed in the system. Josh was a man who lived in that gray area, believing that good and evil lived in everyone. That can be a good thing, or a bad thing. Before he used that gray sight of his to see the good inside even the worst people. Now however he was using it to see the evil inside even the best people. Josh no longer saw the good. He lived in a world of black and gray, and white was a fleeting color that did not deserve to exist in his mind.  
  
"Josh." Karasuma asked quietly as she walked across the room. The floor was dry, thankfully, in this one particular pipe. The table was nothing more than a poker table with fold out chairs on all sides. Some old oil lamps provided all of the light in the room. She had a sad look on her face. "What happened to you?"  
  
Josh shrugged. "I got shot. Want some beer?"  
  
Karasuma scowled, knowing that he was a different man. She sighed and turned to Amon. Amon's expressionless face stared back at her with the same look his dark eyes always carried. Karasuma felt like a different person here today. She had felt different for a long time. Sighing a bit, she sat down in one of the chairs. Josh had already explained about Orbo, and what it was made from. Amon hadn't spoken since. Karasuma had felt so . . . odd. The normally reserved, calm and always collected young woman who seemed so much older than her nineteen years would normally carry, was gone. A new Karasuma was here. A Karasuma who felt like a shy, scared schoolgirl again.  
  
And it would only get worse for her.  
  
----  
  
Rica's katana was easily moved through the remainder of Kichiro's body. He hacked the torso and arms into pieces and the legs followed soon after. The head remained on the ground alone, looking up at him with those twin eyes. Rick Richards would not be defeated that easily. He did not have a body, but he would still avenge himself against Campbell, and now against Rica as well.  
  
David ran a hand through his short black hair and he smiled his smug smile that had become a sort-of unofficial trademark for himself. He had chopped the body of Kichiro into countless ribbons, both to make sure it was unusable, and because he rather enjoyed doing it after a while. He'd throw them up and swing the silver blade in the black night sky and see if he could hit the piece of flesh. Richards remained quiet.  
  
"Very impressive David."  
  
Rica stopped dead, allowing the piece of flesh he had been aiming for to sail wide and land on the ground harmlessly. He gulped a bit when he realized who had spoken and he turned around slowly to find a old man standing in the darkness. It was Juliano, of course, and the old man was as expressionless as ever. Rica's gun was now in the waist-band of his pants, and his sword in his hand. The sky was dark and the grass was stained crisp beneath his feet.  
  
"Father Juliano." Rica breathed. "So nice to see you again."  
  
Juliano did not move for a moment. He just stood still. And then a lot of things happened very fast. As the wind passed over the two of them, Rica yelled and spun around, grabbing his automatic-pistol and firing several shots. A bright red light engulfed Juliano's forehead and a beam of crimson death covered the sky. The bullets sailed into a red, eye-shaped hole in Juliano's head and were absorbed. Rica felt himself being drawn towards it, and he watched as bits of Kichiro's flesh flew into the eye hole.  
  
Rica held the sword strong in his hand and attempted to hold himself back, but it was useless. The head of Kichiro was now flying at the black hole of red light that was sucking in everything in sight. Rica growled and watched as the head vanished down into the light. For a brief second, Juliano gasped, and it was just long enough for Rica to jump and let himself be drawn in. Mere feet from death, Rica slashed the sword and pierced Juliano's throat, causing blood to shower them both. The red eye closed and Juliano fell backwards, dead.  
  
Rica dropped to his knees and began to pant, real fear breathing through his body. He shook and his sweat seemed cold to him. A amused noise caught his ear and he turned to see a woman with rich red hair leaning against a tree with a smile of enjoyment on her face. Rica went for the sword, but she quickly shook her head.  
  
"I just want to talk, Davy."  
  
----  
  
"Thank you for agreeing to meet with me, Gentlemen."  
  
In a room in the Factory, Zaizen stood. The walls, floors and ceiling were black, and windows did not pierce the walls. Instead there was a large wall filled with TV screens. One big one in the middle showed a aged, squat man who looked European. Many others showed different men and women, a young redhead with piercing green eyes, a Chinese man with gray hair and a small nose, a American in a fancy suit with a annoyed look plastered on his wall- street worthy face. The men and women on the screens were those of the Division Heads of SOLOMON, and the man on the big screen was the Director of SOLOMON.  
  
"We are busy Takuma. Unlike you, we are important people." The Director said coldly. Many others shook their heads. All of the men were using web cams to broadcast themselves to Zaizen, who grinned.  
  
"Mr. Director, I know you sent David Rica to kill me." He said frankly.  
  
The Director sighed and shook his aged head from side to side. "It was my son who revived Rica and gave him his mission. I had my son killed for it. Still, I won't deny the fact that SOLOMON considers you and your Factory a possible risk."  
  
Zaizen gave a small smile on his aged lips and he walked slowly through the room. His gray hair was slick with sweat but he didn't let it bother him. He looked at the camera just beneath the screen of the director which broadcast his own image and he smiled evilly before turning and walking to his desk. He reached down and opened a briefcase that stood on the single, black, marble desk. He pulled what looked like a can of air freshener out of it and held it before him.  
  
"This gentlemen, is the future." He said quietly. "This is Operation Seven Trumpets."  
  
"'Seven Trumpets?" The Chinese SOLOMON Deputy-Director asked from his screen.  
  
"Yes." Zaizen rolled his eyes. "From the Bible. It states that the Seven Archangels shall play Seven Trumpets during Judgment Day. Those Trumpets would be the doom and salvation of Mankind."  
  
He held up the air freshener can with a father's pride and beamed his aged smile around to the Director and his Deputies. "The difference here is this Trumpet is the salvation of man, and the doom of witches. Bring in the subject."  
  
The doors at the end of the black room, which were black and blended into the wall, opened and two Factory Agents came in. Between them they held a witch, who had his face and hands bound. Zaizen waved his hand slightly and his twin guards dropped the witch, who fell on his knees.  
  
"This is Kibo Nishimura. He has the power to turn his hands into metal. Watch."  
  
Zaizen waved his hand again and the guards removed the clamps on Nishimura's hands and face. Instantly Nishimura's swift reflexes caused his hands to transform into twin sword-like blades and swipe out to his sides, slashing through the stomach's of both guards, who screamed and fell down in a haze of blood. The Irish Deputy-Director had to stifle a cry, and the American looked sickened.  
  
Nishimura turned around and looked at Zaizen. He growled and ran forward with a screaming battle cry. Zaizen did not look worried, instead he took the can of air freshener and sprayed it before him. The sound of something spraying came out, but nothing was seen. Still, when Nishimura was about a foot from Zaizen he stopped dead in his tracks and sneezed. A second later he screamed and a sound like boiling water was heard. The directors all looked at their screens but could only see Zaizen's back.  
  
When Zaizen stepped away, all of them gasped. Some of them turned away in disgust, and some covered their eyes. Nishimura's face was blistering and boiling as small bubbles shot up beneath his skin. The skin was melting away in several places and he was scratching at his face with his hands (which were human again) and sobbing quietly. Blood was tricking down as the bones that were clearly visible beneath the peeling and melting skin were burning a shade of black. Zaizen smiled, the director and his deputies were now all looking away.  
  
"Using the same technology that created Orbo." He explained as he adverted his eyes from Nishimura, who was now on the ground dead but still burning, and turning them to the screens. "We created this. You saw what it did to him, now watch this."  
  
Zaizen held the can up to his own head. Many of the Deputies turned away, but the Director himself did not. Zaizen sprayed himself and they could see a small dabble of liquid on his face. Zaizen sneezed, just as Nishimura had done, but he did not burn or boil or bleed. He just stood there and eventually let out a second sneeze. It was obvious he was not dying, so the deputies turned back to him.  
  
"The substance of this spray is a corrosive nerve agent. However we have altered it so that it only becomes active at the sight of a witch's genes. Witches, as Professor Toudou discovered, have a extra gene in their DNA that humans do not. This spray only becomes active when it detects that gene. Meaning it kills witches, and does nothing to humans than give them a small headache."  
  
The Director's eyes widened with both fear and understanding of the abomination which Zaizen was about to release onto mankind. He shook his head in disbelief. Zaizen reached in his pocket and pulled out a cigar, lit it, and took a big puff of the hoary haze of smoke from the end of his brown wonder.  
  
"Imagine, if you will." Zaizen spoke between inhaling the sour love of the cigar and blowing out the foulest of smoke. "A world without witches. No, you cannot, because then you would have no job. That is your problem. You hate me because I have the things needed to kill all witches in the world. And tomorrow at midnight, I shall destroy all of the witches in Tokyo."  
  
There were many shocked gasps and gaping looks from the directors. They were in disbelief that anyone could be as evil or as cruel as Zaizen. To hunt violent witches was one thing, but to eradicate the entire race was quite another. It reminded them all of someone who had once tried to wipe out a entire race to make a much purer race, and it scared them all.  
  
"Gentlemen, the board is set. Soon I shall make my move. And when I do, I assure you it shall be check."  
  
Zaizen waved a hand and his camera went off. The screens on the wall lost their images and instead they turned blue. Zaizen took a second inhale of the fume of his cigar as he left the director and his deputies to ponder this new turn of events. Soon the entire race of witches in Japan would be gone, and he, Zaizen, would be the savior of mankind.  
  
----  
  
Michael had awaken once more after reliving his nightmare and now he sat on the edge of his bed. Robin had gone down the street to a convince store to pick up some ramen, since they were hungry and she was the best fighter among the group. Michael sat on the edge of the bed and looked at the old band posters on the wall and he continued to see the dream of Robin's death whenever he closed his eyes. He knew that Robin was safe, and he knew that it was just a dream, but that didn't stop him from having a worry. He couldn't help but feel that he should be with her.  
  
There was a ding from the corner of his bedroom, and he saw the computer screen was now depicting a small mailbox with a envelope inside to show that he had received a email. He walked slowly across the room, his shoulder still sore. The morphine had worn off and he was now both sober and in pain. He asked for some more, but Sakaki had gave him a no. Moving his hand gently so as not to upset his wound, Michael used the mouse to click on the envelope. A new pop-up popped up and he saw a letter from Amy in the STN-A offices in New Orleans's. She had been a Internet friend of his for a long time, and recently she had met the STN-J he worked with when they had hunted her old boss, David Rica.  
  
Michael's sky blue eyes moved from behind the orange frames and peered down at the letter. It had no words, only a IP number. Michael knew what to do and had soon come to a new web page that showed a web cam feed. It was a recording of a web cam. Michael saw as Zaizen spoke about Rica, and then as Zaizen melted the face off of a witch. Michael watched as Zaizen talked about 'Operation Seven Trumpets'. When the screen went black and Zaizen was gone, he was in horror.  
  
"Michael."  
  
Robin had appeared at the doorway to the room holding a shopping bag that was undoubtedly full of ramen noodles. She had a unhappy look on her face, but it was nothing compared to the sheer horror that was plastered on Michael's once-happy lips. He looked down at her, searching for words but unable to find them. She looked as if she wanted to say 'You should be in bed', but he knew she could read the fear on his face. She walked over slowly and put her petite hand on his shoulder, which sent a wave of warmth through his body.  
  
"What's wrong?" She whispered.  
  
Michael opened his mouth, but no sound came out. How could he explain to her what he had seen? How could words describe this horrible new sin of Takuma Zaizen, a man who is full of sins. He shook his head and returned to the computer, pressing a button and allowing the horrible video to replay for the woman he loved. Robin watched and she too fell into a gaze of fear as the video ended. The two lovers looked at one another and did not speak. Words had abandoned them both.  
  
Before either of them spoke, the computer gave a ding and once again a email appeared inside Michael's in box. With a gulp at what this one may bring, he clicked on it to reveal it too was from Amy Adams in New Orleans. This time it had no link to horrors, but instead it was a letter.  
  
_Dear Michael,  
  
I hope you saw the recording of Zaizen's conference. He broadcast that about half a hour ago. I was monitoring the __New York__ office's stations. That man in the suit is the Deputy-Director for __America__.  
  
We don't know what Zaizen meant, but we believe he has some way to spread this nerve agent into the public. It would kill witches and leave humans unharmed. However, if every witch in the city is suddenly melted, it will scare people. Perhaps even expose SOLOMON to the public. We can't let that happen.  
  
The Director has already begun to muster a army. They plan to attack the Factory. Every country supporting SOLOMON is planning a raid. The Japanese branch, and your STN-J office will soon be notified. They want you to make a attack.  
  
I advise you tell your team not to attack the factory. They're only using you so that Zaizen test his gas on your team, to see if it effects Seeds. If it does then SOLOMON will have to launch a air strike on the Factory. We're talking serious firepower.  
  
SOLOMON also says to keep the attack on standby until tomorrow night. They want to see if Zaizen is as capable as he says.  
  
There is another way, though. Or at least their may be. Michael, are you still involved with Robin Sena? There is something important about her you need to know. If she's there, make sure she knows too. I've included a trans script of a disc that was created by Professor Toudou before his death. If it's true, then there may be something she can do that will turn the tides of this battle.  
_  
Below those words on the letter, Michael stopped reading and looked to his side, where Robin too had stopped. Michael moved his hand up and placed it over one of her own and gave it a small squeeze as he scrolled down. The two read the transcript of Toudou's research, and when it was done they both stood in silence. Below the words of Toudou were more words from Amy.  
  
_If it's true, if Robin is some kind of 'Super-Witch', then there is a way to stop Zaizen. A man named Josh Osaka called the Director about a hour ago and told him that Orbo is created from the DNA of Witches. He also said that Zaizen dumps the waste of their bodies in a small lake near Mt. Fuji. I suggest that you and Robin go there.  
  
But first I suggest that you find out anything you can on Zaizen's Operation for tomorrow night. We have to stop him if we're going to stop SOLOMON's attack. If Zaizen becomes too dangerous, then SOLOMON will do anything to stop him. I mean anything. They've talked about everything from sending in troops to air strikes to nukeing the Factory if they have to. The Director is crazy. We can't let them see how dangerous Zaizen is.  
  
I don't know what that comment about Rica was about, but if he's alive somehow and there I suggest you keep your distance. I don't have to remind you of how dangerous he is.  
  
I pray this letter helps.  
  
Love, Amy  
_  
Silenced engulfed them once more.  
  
This was the beginning of the end.  
  
The beginning of war.  
  
-------------------


	16. Michael's Craft

**Witch Hunter Robin  
False Echoes**

**  
Chapter XVI – Michael's Craft**

**  
Disclaimer**: Seriously. I don't own it.****

Nor do I own the song _False Echoes_; that belongs to Jimmy Buffett and James Taylor. Ya dig?  
  
Storyline, Plot, **Kenny** **Avery©**,** Roger Williams©**, **Kichiro Wantanabee©**, **Rick Richards©**, **Michael Campbell©**, **Rosalind Nichols©**, **Jackie Flemming** and **Mr. _Jackson_ _David Rica_©** are all mine.****

**-------------------**

There was a soft knock at the door, but neither Robin nor Michael made any move to answer it. Instead they both sat in silence, hands still clasped firmly together in a show of support and strength, their minds filled with what Amy's letter had shown them. Toudou's research. Was it true? Could it be true? Could these words that had been shown to them be the truth? They did not know. Robin was sitting in silence, her vivid green eyes staring intently at her lap where one of he petite hands was being clasped by one of Michael's bigger ones. Robin had always liked Michael's hands. They weren't rough and scarred like the hands of most of the men in her life. Father Juliano, Amon, everyone she met had hands that were stained with blood and rough with old scars that would never go away. Michael was different. He had killed before, yes; but his hands weren't stained with innocent blood. Robin admired that.

"Michael?" Doujima's voice lifted through the wooden door. "Robin?"

The hacker did not speak. His sky blue eyes were fixed on Robin from behind the orange sunglasses and he gave her hand a squeeze. His lips parted slightly and the faintest sound came from out of them. It was speech, but it was so soft that Robin had to strain to hear what it said to her. "Are you okay?"

Robin shook her head. She was not okay. Not right now. Everything that had been kept from her for nearly sixteen years was now coming crashing down on her. Toudou, Maria, Project Robin, Father Juliano, all of it came plummeting to the pit of her stomach where it swirled into one large cabaret of pain and lies. She felt the knot in her stomach tighten and she moaned a bit, dropping her head. Michael's hands were on her shoulders now, hugging her supportively. But right now not even Michael Lee's love could keep Robin from falling into the blackness that was called despair.

The sounds of a gun cocking outside the door could be heard and Michael decided it was time to inform Doujima that everything was fine before she came breaking down the door with her gun blazing. Of course not everything was fine; it wouldn't be for a long time. Zaizen was plotting to destroy every witch in the city at midnight and Robin had just learned the disturbing truth about her life. How could _that_ ever become fine? It wasn't just a problem that would go away by tomorrow. It wasn't a problem that could be solved with any answer Michael could find in his mind. He didn't know how to help her.

"We're fine, Doujima-san." Michael called to the door. A moment of silence passed by unchallenged and then the door opened. Doujima stepped inside, brushing a strand of her long blonde hair away from those deep cerulean eyes. She had a look in those eyes that Michael caught right away and he knew something terrible was going to happen soon. Somehow he knew that all of this was going to come to an end soon and he knew that when it did; not all of them would be alive. It hit him at that moment that this may be the last time the four of them were together safely.   
  
"I've got news." Doujima said, her eyes scanning them over for a second and pausing on Robin as she clearly noticed the depth of sadness in the younger woman but had no choice but to ignore it. "Zaizen's attack, it isn't scheduled for tomorrow at Midnight. It's set for tonight."  
  
Michael cursed and pounded his fist into the desk. Running a hand through his orange hair he looked up at the blonde. "How do you know?"

Doujima shifted her weight between her legs and began to chew on a strand of hair as well as her bottom lip. She looked as if whatever she had to say was very painful for her to speak and Michael began to wonder what this obvious secret could possibly be. His eyes scanned the woman he had known for years for a moment before she sighed and crossed her arms."I work for SOLOMON." She whispered."We all do." Michael blinked, not understanding her confession.  
  
"No." Doujima breathed. "I mean I'm a spy. I was sent here two and a half years ago to keep an eye on Zaizen. That's why I never get in trouble. Kosaka knows. Anyway, I just got word from my boss that Zaizen lied in the broadcast. The bombs going off tonight, not tomorrow."

Michael cursed once again and once again his fist pounded the table. If his "Operation Seven Trumpets" could truly do as it seemed it could; every witch in Tokyo would be dead. Men, women, children; all dead. Mothers and fathers, daughters and sons, sisters and brothers all dead. It was an abomination to even fathom such horrors and now Zaizen wanted it to become a reality. A war would be the only answer. SOLOMON would destroy Zaizen, even if it meant bombing the entire countryside. Between Zaizen's project and the wrath of SOLOMON, millions would perish.

"How do we stop it?" Robin asked, breaking the silence and turning her head around. Robin's azure gaze met her own and he admired her at that moment. He had seen Robin Sena at her best and her worst. He saw her lying in a hospital bed more times than he could possibly count, and he had seen her cry on several occasions. He had seen her kill and he had seen her battle horrors that most girls her age would scream and run from. Yet this was the first time Michael ever truly saw her look so determined. It was as if the knowledge they had received from Toudou's research had caused a fire to be lit in her soul.

"The bombs at the Sakatoki Towers. It will detonate on the roof and spread the gas through the city by morning." Doujima explained gravely. "And Zaizen has almost all of the factory's guards out there."

"And Rica and my dad are still after us."

Eyes turned to see Sakaki appear in the doorway. He had donned a leather jacket over his olive green shirt and in his hand was a small handgun. The blonde boy who had always been hot-headed and immature looked just the same as he always did. Still there was something else. The four of them would have to stop the bomb themselves; there was no help. Could they do it? Probably not. Would they try?   
  
Hell ya.

**----**

Amon was brooding.

He sat in a small armory room of the underground base of Josh Osaka and his followers. He sat with a tiny shot glass in his hand and a bottle of whiskey resting gently on the table before him. He sat with sadness in his eyes. It was very rare that Amon ever allowed himself to feel the emotions he fought against so hard, but this was one of those few times. He could hide emotion well. During a fight, during death, during sex, during bodily injury, he could deny emotion. He could deny emotion even when it came to his mother or to Touko's recent death. Yet he could not deny emotion when it was staring him in the face like this. Not when he was drunk anyway. Usually he could hold his liquor, but today he could not. It was something that people could not understand. Amon was an enigma. He wanted to be human so badly, and yet he denied any human emotion.

How could one be human and be without human emotion? How could one obtain humanity and throw away love and angst and all of the other things that keep define someone as a human being. That was his dilemma. If he denied his emotions, then he was not human. But if he allowed those emotions to become part of his everyday life then he could awaken and become a witch; therefore losing his humanity. Either path he took he wouldn't be a human being. Never a human being . . .  
  
"Amon." Karasuma's voice; so full of strain and angst as it had been for days. "Amon, we have new information. Zaizen is sending almost all of the Factory's guards to Sakatoki Towers, why we don't know; but we have a chance to attack the Factory—Amon, are you okay?"

Karasuma had forgotten her words in an instant and placed a hand on Amon's shoulder. Amon said nothing to her; instead he only sat still and brought the sweet alcohol to his lips. Before Amon could drink the sweetness, though, Karasuma knocked it away with a small smile. Amon glared up at her and gave her an obvious expression that could only mean "what was that for?"

"The one time I see you act normal and it's to drink?"

"Hmm."

Karasuma narrowed her eyes in distaste as she looked at Amon. Her brow raised and she leaned in closed to him until she could smell the alcohol on his breath. Adding only one more annoyance to her growing list of things that made her head throb. It had been a horrible time and her personality had undergone many, many countless changes. It had become so that she didn't even recognize herself. Physically she looked the same; her hair was the same reddish color it had always been and her skin had not developed wrinkles or blemishes or anything of that nature. However her eyes had become filled with an expressionless confusion and a deep, brooding sadness. She was becoming a darker person; a person who knew only sadness.

"Karasuma." Amon breathed quietly, turning his head up to her.  
  
"Yes Amon?"

Amon said nothing. His dark eyes were locked onto her lighter ones. To Karasuma, the world around her was very dull and boring; but the charcoal colored eyes of her fellow witch hunter were a contrast. The world was black and boring; and though his eyes held the same blackness, they also held an emotion like none she'd ever seen. It was at this moment that she finally understood. Amon was not an emotionless man. He simply had a unique emotion that no one else could feel. A new emotion that could not be comprehended by normal folk. She couldn't begin to describe this mystery emotion that she saw in Amon's eyes that day; but she knew it would change her life looking at it.

"Amon . . ."

Amon stood and walked closer to her. Karasuma could feel her face growing hot and once again she felt like someone completely different instead of herself. Amon said something then that made her heart stop. Amon's words at that moment gave her back all of the hope and confidence that the past few days had stolen from her.

"Are you sure?" Karasuma asked him, once she had comprehended what he said.  
  
"Yes." Amon replied. "Are you surprised?"

Karasuma nodded. "It just isn't like you."

Amon's face remained the same but something in his eyes changed when she said this. He gave her one of those small, amused looks that he saved and used only rarely. "Perhaps."

What happened next was both surprising, and wonderful. And everyday until the day she died; Karasuma remembered it and savored it.

**----**

"Now how do you know my name, my very tasty little puppy?"

Rica was standing in the park, the sword still in hand. Blood from Juliano's neck was still sticky and warm as it encrusted the blade. The woman; whose hair seemed to be the exact color of the blood drenched foil simply laughed. She wore a deep jade businesswoman suit that matched her eyes and Rica's eyeless sight noticed the gun in her hand. He did not fear the gun in the slightest, but part of natural reaction to it was to become cautious.

"I was his partner." She echoed softly, pointing a long cream-colored finger at the lifeless vessel that had once housed Juliano's soul. "SOLOMON sent us to kill you; Kichiro too, but I see you already did that."

Rica made no move to correct her and explain the tail of the ghost and possessing Kichiro's body. Instead he let his sight flicker over her as the empty eye sockets somehow took in her form. She was beautiful; by all counts. The hair was silky and long and David had always liked redheads anyway. Her skin was a creamy blend of pales and hues that brought out the obvious Irish background. Her eyes held a spark of vivid green imagination and played host to the darkness lingering behind them. Not to mention a body that would put most supermodels to shame. Although her flesh was appealing, Rica would be damned if he'd lower his guard just because she had a pretty face.

"However; as you can see I didn't try to stop you from killing him Davy." The woman spoke again. "Instead I wanted to tell you what Zaizen was planning."  
  
Rica shook his head. The short, jet-black hair allowed wind to pass through it as he did. "I could care less about Zaizen."  
  
The woman smiled. "No, but Yurika Doujima and Haruto Sakaki; along with those other two friends of yours are attempting to hinder Zaizen's plans. And this could help you find and kill them. Tonight."  
  
Rica's thin, pale lips curved into a cold smile. He was beginning to like this woman's personality almost as much as he liked the rest of her.

**----**

Sakatoki Towers was named after a man named Hanzo Sakatoki, a hero in the world of electronics who had created some of latest in the fields of surgery, computer technology, and video games. He died a year ago in a car accident and the tower was given his name. Though it is only one tower, it is always referred to as the "Towers" because of its original design, which was to have two towers across the street from each other. It wound up becoming too expensive, but the official plaque outside always read "Towers", and so people called it by the pleural regardless. It was not the tallest building in Tokyo by a long shot; however it did have a large roof that was usually in the path of the wind; hence the reason Zaizen had chosen it for the bomb.

The roof is a large, simply-square roof. There is a small rising which contains a door and a ceiling of its own, but pretty much the entire thing is just a large gray roof. On top of that rising for the door there was currently a large black metal device that looked a lot like a pipe system; or perhaps a furnace. It was the bomb for Operation Seven Trumpets. The men in black SWAT-like suits; factory agents, were everywhere. On the roof, stationed on every floor of the building, and the lobby and outside. Nearly everyone on Zaizen's payroll and some mercenaries he hired from the Mafia were working here tonight. This was Zaizen's big night, and he'd watch it all from his office at the Factory.

Outside of the towers, a small red car pulled up. The car had been rented only fifteen minutes ago from an all-night car rental. In all the commotion no one had noticed it was 4:23am on December 26th. It was amazing to think that earlier on Christmas Eve; Robin and Michael (two of the car's occupants) had been sharing a meal together. Now they were about to begin what may be the final witch hunt of their lives. Michael sat in the back seat next to Robin, while Doujima was driving and Sakaki was at her side loading his gun. Michael thought this building was a new place for him; like most of Tokyo, but he was wrong. He had seen it before. He had seen the roof before.

In his dreams. However he did not know this yet.   
  
"Ready?" Sakaki asked as he cocked the gun.  
  
"Do we have a choice?" Doujima teased as she reached for her own out of the holster under her jacket. Sakaki frowned at her; he was still upset from her confession of being a spy, but they'd get over it. Right now they had more important issues at hand. Right now they had to stop a bomb that would destroy all witches and seeds in the city. Robin gave a deep sigh, as a sign that she too was ready; and Michael opened the door. The second he did a Factory agent exited the building as if he had been expecting someone.

"I'm sorry sir, you can't park he—"

Michael stepped out of the car, raised his right hand which held a black pistol with a black silencer attached at the end, and fired two shots into the man's chest. The Factory agent fell dead and quickly Doujima and Sakaki exited the car, their own suppressed guns ready to follow suit. On cue, the window of the building exploded in a hail of gunfire which was destroyed in midair by the wall of orange flames that had jumped from the ground at Robin's mental command. Sakaki circled around to the door (which was made of glass) and fired through, hitting one of the agents. By now more had heard the sounds of gunfire and been drawn to it.  
  
"One question!" Michael hollered over the sound of shooting as he reloaded his clip from behind the safety of Robin's protective flames. "Why the silencers? They were pretty pointless."

Sakaki laughed back as he fired off the last three shots of his clip and heard the satisfying 'thud' of a Factory agent falling to the ground. "Makes me feel like Bond." He replied.

**----**

"We ready?" Josh asked.

The old sewage tunnels underneath the Factory had been converted into a base for Josh and his followers within a year. All of that work was about to be blown away in a flood of sewage and a couple pounds of C4. The entire team was assembled, automatic weapons issued to all of them. Josh himself, besides wearing the full body armor and helmet, was also carrying an AK-47 with several additional rounds attached to the belt slung across his chest. Amon, who seemed a bit different than he normally, did while not acting any differently held a powerful A1M-16 in his arms; ready to attack. It wasn't much. Karasuma and a few other agents had Uzis' bought from the black market and everyone brought pistols along. It was a small group; and while they had good weaponry they would never be a match for the full Factory. However Josh knew that for some reason Zaizen had sent his troops to Sakatoki Towers. That would give them enough time for this suicide – and it was suicide – mission. They'd get inside, kill Zaizen and his scientist, and then collapse the factory.

"Now." Josh explained as his eyes flew from Amon to Karasuma to his own team. "Our information tells us that the Factory has a contingency for any attacks. The main lab is underground, and in the events of a raid like the one we're about to pull; it will collapse. I have no doubt that it will collapse on us and kill us; let's just make sure it destroys the Orbo and Zaizen with us."

Amon didn't speak; only stood against the wall holding his gun steady. Karasuma nodded her head, her eyes not focusing on the faces of either of the men beside her. The rest of the team all simply gave mutters of "Yes" and "Okay" and "Hai" before they cocked their guns and took a step backwards. Josh stepped forward and pressed a small button on the side of an orange plastic device. Instantly a small beep told them this was a go. Josh ran backwards to where the others stood and shielded his face.  
  
"Let's go."

The C4 exploded and the sewage pipes in the Factory's lab went with it. Before the smoke had even cleared, Amon and Josh had run forward side by side and entered the Factory; ready to fight and ready to die.

**----**

The cold air was still blowing through the park. Jackie Flemming; the redheaded woman who had been sent with Juliano, had already left with Rica on their way to the Sakatoki Towers. The body of Kichiro Wantanabee was chopped, battered, shot and bruised. No longer identifiable and no longer useful to the angry wraith that called itself Rick Richards. In life Richards had been a police officer and the notorious Jack the Ripper. Five hookers had been killed and surgically butchered by the very cop sworn to protect them. But after Rosalind had left him for Michael Campbell, he had gone to find Campbell.

Rosalind and Michael had been on their honeymoon when Richards showed up with a sword and a gun. He shot Michael and killed him; then proceeded to kidnap Rosalind. He kept her in his basement for four weeks while he tried to win her love; but she never gave in. So in the end she was raped and murdered just like the rest of the Ripper's victims. The body was never found because the house burnt down days later. The only things to survive were Rosalind's bracelet and Richard's sword. Michael Campbell's pocket watch had been found with his body. No one ever knew that the three of them; since they were witches, had used Michael's ability to enchant objects with Echoes with their own echoed-souls. No one ever knew that when Richard's echo in the painting saw Michael Lee; the descendant of Michael Campbell, that it would awaken this ancient fury.

Michael Campbell's echo had healed Michael Lee from his fatal burns. Rich Richard's echo had possessed Wantanabee through the sword and now sat on the ground in that very sword, wishing for a new body.   
  
As for Rosalind's echo, it was still in the bracelet. And the bracelet was still in the pocket of Michael Lee's cargo pants. Michael had forgotten all about it ever since Robin handed it to him. Whether or not he'd ever find it was not important. When he'd find it; that was the key.

The cold wind blew, and the old rapier rolled across the grass. Perhaps by the wind; perhaps by the will of the specter that possessed it. Whatever the reason, when the sword rolled it came colliding into Juliano Colegui's body. There was a sound like running water and a flash of black light; and then Juliano's corpse rose up onto his feet and gave a cry of "CAMPBELL!" before setting off to find Michael and Robins . . .

**----**

The elevators of the Sakatoki Towers are rather odd. The one in the lobby goes only from the lobby to the 17th floor; from there a second elevator must be used to reach from 17 to 27, and from there a third goes from 27 to the final floor on 42. On the seventeenth floor, to reach the next needed elevator; Robin and the rest of them had to go down a narrow hallway. Unfortunately that hallway was filled with Factory agents whose guns were blazing. Michael and Sakaki clung to the wall that led to the hallway on the left, while on the right Doujima and Robin did the same. Every time they had a chance Michael, Doujima and Sakaki would return fire on the Factory agents.

Michael had fired a gun only a few times before in his life. He had used the acid-Orbo revolver on the witch called Nobunaga many months ago after Nobunaga and Amon had finished their katana duel. He had also shot one of David Rica's human henchmen during Rica's first visit to Japan. However, Nobunaga had been wounded and lost his craft power when Michael killed him; and Rica's henchmen had shot Michael as well. He wasn't a very good shot now; as can be imagined, but his lack of aim kept the Factory agents busy avoiding him and turned them into easy targets for Doujima and Sakaki; who had more training.

"We can't keep this up!" Sakaki shouted as he hugged the wall while reloading his gun. The bullets blazed against the wall on his side and sparks of light and shrapnel.

Robin didn't say a word, she merely leaned her head over, slipped the glassed onto her petite face, and a second later the hallway exploded in flames. Because of complications with the human-friendly Orbo, these agents were not equipped with it. Therefore in a flash of orange devils, they all died. Doujima looked impressed and Sakaki could be heard muttering something about "Why didn't we do that from the start?" Only Michael looked hurt by Robin's killing of the agents. Only Michael took time to see the deep sadness and hurt in the nun-raised girl's eyes. Only Michael . . .

**----**

"Sir! Intruders have infiltrated the plumbing systems."   
  
A musky cloud of gray stench hung over Zaizen as he leaned back in his chair. His aged lips sucked on the end of his cigar for a moment and inhaled the sour smoke to his lungs before he breathed out and set the cigar down in the ashtray.

"Who?" Zaizen asked the scientist who stood before him. The brown haired, glasses-wearing weasel-like scientist who had been in charge of Orbo work. The scientist reached up to Zaizen's computer and typed with his long fingers for a brief second before a security feed appeared on screen. Zaizen's dark eyes followed the screen and lingered on the shadowy shapes of Amon, Josh, Karasuma and their team for a moment. Then the administrator reached for a brown box and took out a second cigar. He leaned back as he raised his hand and lit the cigar with his silver lighter."Sir?" The scientist asked. "They are in the lab level. We do not have the adequate troops to eliminate them. I can contact the towers and have a team back here in twenty minutes; we can hold them that long."

Zaizen nodded his head and the scientist bowed and exited the room quickly, going for his cell phone as he did. Zaizen puffed on the cigar for a moment before opening up the bottom right drawer on his desk. Insider was a large Orbo gun containing the purest Orbo ever made. His hand reached inside, but did not touch the gun. Instead he picked up a picture frame next to it and set it on his desk. Zaizen's eyes flashed over the picture and his iris identified the three people in it. The brown-haired youth was Zaizen, while the blonde next to him was his ex-wife. The young girl; no more than eight in this photo, was Touko.  
  
"Goddamn you Amon." Zaizen breathed as he dropped his cigar to the ground while his hand shook violently. His body had taken to shaking deeply now as he looked at the picture of the wife he'd divorced and the daughter he'd murdered. "Goddamn you for what you made me do!"

**----**

"I really hate hospital food."

Nagira was sitting up in his bed. The surgery had gone well and he would recover fully from the bullet wound. He could ever walk; a bit. He sat in one of those all-white beds with the all-white walls and ceiling. Covering his body was one of those baby blue hospital gowns with the big hole for his back. A chair next to his bed contained his fur coat and holstered gun. He guessed Amon had put the gun back in the holster after recovering it from Touko's body. Nagira would throw it away as soon as he could.

Then the phone – which was also plain white – rung. He groaned and moved the trey of horrible hospital food off his lap before picking up the phone and bringing the receiver to his ear.   
  
"Nagira." He said to the phone.

"Mr. Nagira, do you remember me?" The voice was of an American."No. Look, I'm busy, call back later."  
  
"Amon needs you now Nagira. Do you remember my message? I told you the demon was coming. That demon is here. And Amon's worst fear will come to pass."  
  
Nagira's eyes narrowed. "Now I remember you. Calling me with you're freaky messages for Amon! What are you talking about? What fear?"  
  
"Amon's blood had reached the time. Soon the demon shall be awakened. Amon needs you to save him from that demon."  
  
Nagira's eyes widened at these words. He couldn't possibly mean . . .  
  
"Who the hell is this!?" Nagira shouted into the phone. He groaned as the strain caused his wound to hurt him. A dial tone was his only answer as the American man hung up the phone. Nagira cursed and climbed out of bed with a grunt as he reached for his jacket and holster. He really hated phones.

**----**

"Alright, let's do this." Josh breathed. They were held up in a small room where all of the building pipes were located. The boiler room. The furnace and plumbing all connected to this room; as well as the fuse box. Everyone now wore dark green goggles over their eyes so that they could stand use the night vision. It seemed like ages ago to Karasuma; they had been hunting the witch in the abandoned warehouse and Robin had accidentally killed him because of night vision goggles. Now Karasuma wasn't even sure if she'd survive this and get to see Robin or the others again.

"Davis, cut the power." Josh commanded. He and Amon stood by the door, each of them holding their own powerful machineguns and aiming them ready. The man called Frank Davis, an American ex-Navy Seal who Josh had recruited, nodded and began flipping the fuse switches. It took only seconds for the Factory to become completely dark, and only seconds after that for the lights to come back on.  
  
"As I thought, Zaizen has his own power generator." Josh smirked. "Well, it was worth a shot. Alright people, let's go fry us some Factory ass."

Josh nodded to Amon beside him, who in turn kicked in the door to the next room. Instantly bullets went flying and it didn't take long for Amon and Josh to return fire. Amon and Josh leaned against either wall on the sides of the door while the enemies were doing the same at the far end of the room on the door to the main hallway. Josh's team and Karasuma were taking cover behind the pipes.

"Karasuma." Amon spoke, his voice as calm and cool as ever. "Cover us."

Karasuma nodded her strength still strong from what Amon had said to her back at the base. She stood and opened fired on the doorway, as did Davis and a few of the others. Amon and Josh rolled so close to the floor they went under the stream of bullets and they stood so fast their enemies didn't even get a shot. After all, Amon was a master hunter; and Josh was the man who taught him how to be one. The two of them opened fire quickly and cut down their enemies from an angle that gave them a perfect shot. Karasuma smiled to herself back behind the pipes. Maybe, just maybe they would live after all.

**----**

Beside the red car that now sat empty with the door still open outside of the Sakatoki Towers, another car pulled up. This one a brand new BMW; black and elegant. Out of the car David Rica and Jackie Flemming exited it. Both of them had sub-machine guns and Rica still had his katana. With a smirk, Rica looked down at the red car and wondered if it was the car of his enemies. Smiling his smug smile of old, Rica approached the building and stepped inside.

"Be careful dammit!" Jackie yelled. "This place is crawling with Zaizen's henchmen."

Rica laughed. "I thought you knew all about me. You should know bullets don't faze me one bit."

Jackie shook her head which caused her hair to wave around her face. Wrinkling her nose she set about the process of explaining about Project Seven Trumpets and Zaizen's new chemical weapon. Rica just laughed at this too. He was good enough to prevent being exposed to that; he had told her. She had merely muttered something he didn't understand which only produced another laugh from Rica before he bent down to examine the burn marks on the ground.

"Oh yeah." Rica said with satisfaction as he looked at the burns. "This is Robin's handiwork."

**----**

"Mr. Zaizen!"

The scientist burst back into Zaizen's office with a grave look on his face. Zaizen turned to him and narrowed his dark eyes which were still filled with both fury and tears. Growling to himself, Zaizen nodded and waved him over while turning the picture face down on his desk with one motion. He paused for a second; perhaps to make sure his voice didn't crack, before speaking.  
  
"What do you want?"  
  
"Sir, I just radioed the towers. Apparently a group of unknowns is attack them with a mixture of bullets and _fire_."

Zaizen's brow rose angrily. "Robin."

"Yes sir." The scientist confirmed. "They are calling all troops to the top floor. If Robin wants to reach the roof she'll have to go through a wall of our finest trained soldiers."

Zaizen shook his head from side to side in a grave motion. "She is the Devil's Child. She can kill every last one of them. Have your soldiers hold their ground on the main floor, but also keep two of them on the roof. If Robin reaches the roof have them activate it."

The scientist looked nervous. "Sir, if we detonate the bomb before the right time it won't cause maximum damage. Winds won't be at their height for another—"  
  
"I don't care." Zaizen cut him off. "You know the gas is flammable. If Robin discovers this she'll torch the bomb and ruin my plans. We cannot let that happen. We cannot let everything the Orbo taught us be in vain, dammit!"

The scientist nodded. "I understand. Oh, and sir, what of Amon's assault team? Without backup from the towers we cannot hold our own against them."

Zaizen paused once more and began pondering this question too. When he was finished doing so, he looked up at the scientist and smiled. "Yes we can. Have all troops called back to the bunker. Osaka who leads them knows of Orbo. He'll lead Amon and the others to the Orbo lab. When they get there, we shall strike."

The scientist suddenly looked aghast. "Sir! If we do that the gunfire will likely damage the tanks! We'll lose months of Orbo data!"

Zaizen narrowed his eyes. "And if we don't, Osaka's team will kill us all and destroy the Orbo completely."

The scientist nodded once again, although he looked repulsed by the idea. "I understand Mr. Zaizen." And without another word he left the room. Zaizen returned the picture to a face up position and then opened the bottom right drawer again. He pulled out the pure Orbo gun, a simple black handgun. He'd need them both. The Orbo-Gun to kill Amon; for he was sure Amon would come after him and leave the others to the Orbo tanks. And the handgun just in case … incase Amon finally . . .

**----**

Just as Zaizen had ordered, two Factory agents had been stationed on the roof next to the bomb. Each of them held one of the triggers, but only one of them needed to activate there's for the bomb to go off. If they did, any witch exposed would die in less than two minutes; as fast as fifteen seconds. And there was no cure and no way to prevent death. Both of the agents were watching the door diligently for Robin's appearance; just in case they had to activate the bomb.

They didn't even think that someone besides Robin may appear and in a way besides the door. The sound of footsteps was heard and one of the agents began to turn around. He was dead before he finished the action. The rapier that killed him was thrust into the second man before he could even realize what was going on.

Juliano Colegui – no, Rick Richards in his body – stood with a satisfied smile. He had a hard time getting on the roof with no one noticing, but he had done so. Now he just had to wait for Campbell and Rosalind to come up to the roof and then at long last; after so many years of death separating them, his revenge could be complete.

"Campbell . . ."

**----**

"I don't get this." Michael whispered as the four of them road the elevator to the forty-second floor. They hadn't seen one agent in a while and it was beginning to become ominous to the hacker.

"Maybe we killed them all." Sakaki suggested. "Maybe Zaizen didn't figure the top floors needed to be guarded because no one could get this far."  
  
Doujima rolled her eyes, Robin sighed and Michael gave Sakaki a look that clearly said "wishful thinking." Sakaki sighed and fingered his gun as they road the elevator. It was clear that they'd soon see if Sakaki was right or wrong. And one way or another they were almost to the bomb. The end of all of this would come soon. That was for sure.

The ding was heard and the doors opened. As soon as they did an ocean of bullets came flying at them; but the ocean was no match for the furious flames that met them halfway. Robin melted away all of the bullets and when their enemies had taken cover to reload the flames lowered and her companioned opened fire. Two Factory agents were taken in this first exchange; but there were many more and bullets were running dangerously low for the good guys. Sighing, Robin realized what she had to do.

"Father." She whispered quietly. So quietly that her friends didn't hear over the sound of gunfire; but she knew that the person she was speaking to would hear her. He always did. He heard everything. "Forgive me."

Flames engulfed the room. Men screamed and fell dead in seconds. Eight seconds, to be exact. That was all the time it took for Robin Sena, the Devil's Child, to turn a room full of soldiers into piles of black ash. Michael's mouth was left open and Sakaki and Doujima seemed surprised. They could all see that Robin was becoming more powerful by the minute. She truly was, as Toudou had said, the greatest witch of all.

"Now all we have to do is disarm the bomb."

**----**

"Alright." Josh said. "We need to split up."  
  
The group of commandos, which had already lost three agents, was stationed in a small room just off the main hallway. Bullets were depleting and already Amon and several others had been reduced to using their handguns; leaving the bulky machineguns in the ground behind them. As Josh spoke of splitting up, Karasuma found her voice.  
  
"Why?"  
  
Josh looked over at her and shook his head. "The second we destroy the Orbo lab, the factory will start collapsing. From then we have anywhere from five to eight minutes before it all comes down. Zaizen will escape in that time. If we want to stop both Zaizen and Orbo, we have to split up." He looked over to Amon. "You and Karasuma go after the old man; the rest of us will head to the Orbo lab."

"Just the two of them?" Davis asked. "They'll be slaughtered."  
  
Josh shook his head. "No. Zaizen knows we're after his Orbo and he's probably got the remainder of his troops in the lab. That's why we haven't seen any on our trip since the last skirmish."

Davis fell quiet. Amon remained quiet. Karasuma, however, did not.  
  
"Josh, if all of the troops are at the Orbo lab –"  
  
"Look." Josh cut her off. "We just have to get inside and detonate the bomb. After that; if we survive, good. If not, we still stopped a madman. This was a suicide mission from the start. All we can do is pray it works."

Karasuma sighed. She had just realized that she had recovered a person from her past who meant a lot to her; and she'd never see him again once she and Amon left to find Zaizen's office. Amon knew this too; but he did not sigh. Instead he shook Josh's hand and nodded."Karasuma, let's go."

**----**

Sakaki was the first one to open the door leading to the roof. He kicked it open and walked out with his gun in hand. Robin and Michael followed, each being careful to look in all directions for enemies. Doujima brought up the rear and closed the door behind her. When they had secured the area, Michael looked up at the large black pipe system.

"That must be it." Michael observed.

"Our data says it's flammable." Doujima explained. "This means if Robin can heat the outer shell enough we can destroy the gas without releasing it."

Robin nodded and put her eyeglasses back on. "I'll do it."

"CAMPBELL!"

Michael spun around; so did the others. Juliano stood at the far end of the gray roof holding his black rapier in hand. Robin gasps and dropped to her knees, but Michael quickly made her stand back up as he narrowed his eyes and Doujima and Sakaki aimed their guns."New body?" Michael mused."Indeed." Richards laughed from inside Juliano. "The last I'll need. Give Rosalind to me. And yourself too. The others may leave."  
  
Thunder crashed above and rain began to fall. For a minute Michael stood as if this was familiar and then it dawned on him. It all made sense. Those dreams. Those horrible dreams that always ended with Robin dying in his arms. They had not been dreams. He hadn't even realized it until now; and of course he'd have to check it later on SOLOMON's computers, but Michael had a good idea that his premonitions had finally awoken; which meant he was a witch who could see the future in his dreams. And that meant –The door burst open once again and before Doujima could turn around to open it two bullets went whizzing through her chest and she plummeting to the floor in a bloody heap. Sakaki screamed but Rica was faster on the draw and he placed two bullets into Sakaki's head and sent him falling to the ground next to his beloved Yurika; dead.

"Well hello pupp—Aww shit, didn't I kill you Juliano?"

Richard's narrowed Juliano's eyes. "I'm tired of you."

Rica laughed. "The ghost! Well I'll be damned! After my dogs again, are you?"  
  
Robin stood horrified as she looked down at the dead bodies of her friends. She was ready to scream; but never got a chance. Michael had suddenly remembered how those dreams always ended. With Robin dying from a bullet wound in the neck. However before he could move; before he could stop it, Rica's bullet was fired.

It seemed to take forever for the bullet to reach Robin's throat. It seemed to take forever for Robin to scream as a cloud of red covered the air. It seemed to take forever for her to fall to the ground. Michael's screamed seemed to last forever as he watched this all unfold in slow motion.

He ran to her side and took her in his arms.

"Rosalind is dead." Richards whispered.  
  
"SHE IS NOT ROSALIND!" Michael roared. "SHE'S ROBIN!"

The emotions rushing through his mind, the blood pumping in his veins and the throbbing in his head were all making his world as blur as he held Robin's lifeless body in his arms. He couldn't believe that she had actually died. He just couldn't believe it.

"Told you I'd be the one to kill those puppies." Rica laughed.Richards roared and jumped forward, soaring over Michael and the dead Robin as he thrust his sword into Rica's chest. Rica laughed and shot Richards in the head several times as Richards stabbed him. Michael didn't even pay attention to the fight. All he could see was Robin's lifeless body in his arms."No, no, no, no, no!" Michael cried, tears flowing down his face. "Please God no! NO!"

Michael suddenly felt something burn in his pocket. It was like white fire burning him. Taking a hand from Robin's dead body, he reached to his pocket and felt around until he pulled a hot metal ring. His eyes fell on the bracelet of Rosalind; which was glowing with a white hot fury. Memories of when he died and Michael Campbell's watch brought him back to life filled his mind.

Could Robin be saved?

He truly didn't know . . .

**----------------------**


	17. Maria's Hope

**Witch Hunter Robin  
False Echoes**

**  
Chapter XVII – Maria's Hope**

**  
Disclaimer**: Seriously. I don't own it.****

Nor do I own the song _False Echoes_; that belongs to Jimmy Buffett and James Taylor. Ya dig?  
  
Storyline, Plot, **Kenny** **Avery©**,** Roger Williams©**, **Kichiro Wantanabee©**, **Rick Richards©**, **Michael Campbell©**, **Rosalind Nichols©**, **Jackie Flemming** and **Mr. _Jackson_ _David Rica_©** are all mine.****

**-------------------**

Josh and the team moved like clockwork to reach the Orbo Lab. They had studied all the Intel they could get and had worked out this battle plan and reworked it for years. Now at last it was time to finish it. The plan was to get inside with a powerful bomb and attach it to a specific part of the eastern wall and a second bomb on the northern wall. The bombs were on the same frequency and would both detonate at the push of a button. Once that happened the entire room would go up in smoke and the roof would crush the Orbo tanks and destroy all of Zaizen's research. The problem was the team of Factory agents who would move in and kill them all thirty seconds after that door opened. Josh didn't know the exact time; but he did know that the room was going to be a death trap once they entered it.

"We ready for this?" Josh asked as he cocked his AK.

"Yes sir." Davis replied. Behind Davis a third soldier named Soba was preparing the bombs. Osaka smiled at them both and he reached down for the input pad that would open the door. He typed in the numbers they had painfully stolen from Zaizen months in advance and watched as the door opened.

"GO!"

The team moved inside the room ready for a fight and they all quickly scattered across the grounds. Josh moved behind one of the large glowing green tanks and looked at the poor witch hooked to this dreaded device. It was one thing to kill a witch who was dangerous; it was another to turn a witch into a liquid for hunting witches. Zaizen was sick. This was undeniable proof of his sickness and madness. Personally Josh would rather be buddies with Saddam Hussein than Takuma Zaizen.

The sound of footsteps reached his ears. "GET READY BOYS!"

The door opened and a swarm of at least thirty Factory agents entered the room. Josh and his team opened fire. Josh stood behind the tank and provided cover as he cut down the enemies with his AK-47. Davis was behind an adjacent tank firing with two handguns into the crowd of enemies. Soba had connected the bomb, but before he could detonate it he was swarmed with bullets and fell to the ground dead.

"DAMN IT!" Josh roared over the sound of speeding death. "Davis, I'll cover you, head to the detonator!"

Davis nodded. "Give me three seconds Josh."  
  
By now, every other member of the team was dead except for the two behind the tanks. Josh gave a battle cry and jumped out from behind the tank and opened fire on the Factory agents. He cut down at least seven of them in the surprise but a second later he was swarmed with enough bullets to bring down an airplane. Josh fell backwards onto the ground; so torn to shreds his own mother would have recognized the body. Davis could feel the bullets aiming his way now, but it didn't matter. Even as the Factory agents killed him he had pressed the button.

A second after Frank Davis died, the bombs went off. The room collapsed and the Orbo Tanks were destroyed. The remaining Factory agents were killed in the explosion or in the collapse of the roof. The Factory's security system went online and began preparations to collapse the entire roof and destroy the entire building.Zaizen sat calmly behind his desk, in his office. The scientist partner of his was panicked, but Zaizen said nothing. Instead he let his eyes go to the door where two shadows had appeared. The scientist panicked and went for his gun; but Amon shot him dead as he walked in the door."So you've come." Zaizen smiled from his desk.  
  
"Yes."

**----**

The rain was coming down in sheets now, and it washed the blood into pools.

Doujima and Sakaki were lying in a heap together, both dead. Blood was washing away from their bullet wounds as the rain came pelting down. Beside their bodies, Rica's Masamune and Richards's Rapier were colliding in a fearsome swordfight while the two undead beings did battle. Jackie Flemming was laughing and watching the battle the whole time. Michael didn't take notice of any of them.

Michael was soaking wet now and the blood of his beloved Robin was being washed off his shirt and hands. He sat on his knees with her lifeless form sprawled across his lap. His eyes were on the glowing white bracelet of Rosalind. Rosalind. She was his ancestor's lover. She had been responsible for Rick Richards's fury. And now she wanted to make amends and heal Robin Sena. Oh Michael prayed it would work. He prayed that Robin would be alright. He actually did pray. Michael had given up faith in God that day when his life was taken from him and replaced by a life of serving Zaizen. Now however, perhaps inspired by the faith in the young woman he loved so much, he turned his sunglasses covered eyes towards the raining sky.

"God. I'm not good at this; but if you let this work, I promise whatever I have to do will be done. I swear it." At this point Michael's face was soaking wet, not only with the rain but with the salty-sweet tears of a boy who had lost his one true love to the cruel world. His tears fell and his eyes became red as he continued his prayer. "I'll go to church again. Honest. Please, just don't let me lose her. I love her too much."

Michael reached down and placed the bracelet around Robin's tiny wrist. There was a pause and then nothing. No miracle. No flash of light. No healing of the wound. No life for Robin. The bracelet stopped glowing and Michael's heart fell and broke. She was dead and she would not be coming back. It was stupid to believe she ever was going too –

And then there was a clash of thunder above and a light brighter than any Michael had even witnessed. Rica and Richards's stopped and turned to stare at it. Michael was bewitched by the light; unable to see but unable to look away. When the light faded a young woman in a blood-stained wedding dress was standing over Robin's body. The dress was old; perhaps from the Victorian age.

"Rosalind?" Richards's gasped in awe.

"Can you're sin never sleep?" Rosalind asked in a soft voice. "Have you no regret for what you have done, Rick?"

Richards's shook Juliano's head. "NO! Campbell deserved what he got! He stole you from me Rosalind!"

Rosalind shook her glowing, pure-white head. "No Rick. Michael and I loved one another. And you're lust not only killed your best friend and the woman you claimed to love; but it has now cost the innocent life of this girl. I forgive you for your evil, Rick. Now rest."

Richards's began to speak; but before he could the glowing black eyes of Juliano closed. The black rapier that he held turned to ash and fell to the ground and Juliano's body fell next and was free. The spirit was gone and would never come back. Rosalind then turned to Michael and ran a hand down his cheek.  
  
"You look so much like my husband." She smiled. "I am sorry that Rick harmed you. I will do what I can."

The illuminating white-light woman then vanished; leaving Michael, Jackie and Rica staring at the spot she had been in. A moment later a cough was heard and Michael looked down at Robin. The bracelet on her wrist had turned to ash and in his pocket he realized that Michael Campbell's watch had done the same. It didn't matter, because those green eyes he loved so much had just flickered open.

"Michael . . ."

"You have to be KIDDING!" Rica roared. "Why is it that people can just rise from the dead whenever they want!?"

A laugh – Doujima's laughed – came up from behind him. Rica spun around to see Doujima and Sakaki sitting on their knees, both of them healed just as Robin had been. Doujima smiled, raised her gun and then spoke to David. "You do."

Doujima and Sakaki then emptied their clips into Rica, who stood their unaffected but flabbergasted. He spun around again and looked at Robin, who had now sat up; though she kept an arm around Michael's shoulder for support.  
  
"This time I'm killing you all." Rica growled. "And you're gonna stay dead."  
  
Michael began to speak, but Robin stood up at that moment. She reached in her pocket and pulled out her glasses, slipping them on over her eyes. Her hand lingered on Michael's shoulder for a moment as she stared at the New Orleans's native zombie. Rica stared back at her for a moment.

"This is stupid." Jackie complained as she took a step forward and raised her gun towards Robin. "Let's just –"

Before she could finish her sentence, a bright orange dance of the devil had appeared. Jackie was burnt into a crisp in a split second; but Rica's usual water-craft kicked in and extinguished the flames before they could consume and destroy him. Rica laughed and flashed his smug smile that had been tattooed in the memories of the STN-J.

"I'd roll my eyes if I had any." Rica's sarcasm shot. "We've battled with our craft twice before little Robin; and I won both times. You really want to dance with the devil a third time?"

It was Robin's turn to smile. Not a smug, devious smile like Rica's; but a smile of a girl who was determined to overcome her challenges no matter no grave they looked and no matter how horrible things could possibly become. She pushed the glasses up the rim of her nose; as the rain water had made them fall down. Rica laughed and fired a jet of water; Robin's flames leapt up and evaporated it before it so much as splashed her.

"This one's for the money." Rica chuckled. "One of us lives, one of us dies."

"Agreed." Robin nodded. She was not normally one to play these games but something had occurred to her now. She had never defeated David Rica before. And perhaps if she could overcome him now she could truly be the Eve of Witches; she could truly bring salvation to her race.

Like Maria had wanted.

Like her mother had wanted.

**----**

Sirens were wailing in the background as Zaizen sat at his desk. He had the black pistol in one hand and the Pure Orbo-Gun in the other. Amon and Karasuma stood in front of his desk; each of them holding their own handguns and aiming them at the administrator. Zaizen smiled at the both of them.

"Tell me Amon." Zaizen asked him as he stared at the dark hunter. "How long have you been a witch?"

Karasuma's eye darted to the corner of its socket and stared at the dark haired hunter. There was a light breeze from the air conditioner beside him and as the cool air floated through him his long hair fluttered majestically. Amon's eyes seemed to narrow and the emotion labeled "Anger" that he had hidden so well all his life was now very apparent and very lively; and very unhidden.

"Since Rica shot me. My craft is the only thing that kept me alive." Amon answered at length. Karasuma gasps.

"Ha-ah!" Zaizen roared with laughter. "You've been a witch for months and you never once used your craft. Must be tough. Yet I believe I'm right in guessing the emotional overload from Touko's death made you unable to keep it in restraint."

Amon didn't answer the question; and he didn't have too. It was very clear that Zaizen's aim was 100% and that his words were true. Amon's gun was aimed steady; or it had been. Now it was shaking slightly in its aim. Karasuma had seen not only anger, but also fear enveloping on his face. It was at that moment that she realized why Amon's emotions were emerging after years of successful hiding.

"You aren't fully awakened, are you? Only partially." Zaizen said matter-of-factly. "But you will be soon. That's why you came here, isn't it? Because you know it's going to happen one way or another. You know that you're emotions are the trigger to awakening the evil inside you; and that is why you lock them away"

"Yes." Amon replied coolly.

Zaizen quirked his brow; but the amusement was still on his face. "Did you love her, Amon? Did you love my daughter? Or have you found someone else?" He added the last part as his eyes moved to Karasuma and a slight fluster of pink invaded her cheeks. Zaizen laughed once more and then he stood up.

"Well Amon, I want you to know that I hated killing her. And I hate you for making me kill her. But it was because of you that she died. It was because you made me. She is dead because of y--"

"No." Amon growled, true anger now apparent on his face and in his voice. The dim lighting in the room illuminated his pale, sunken cheeks and the emotions he had fought against were clearly breaking free. Amon's will to suppress his emotions and his craft was weakening and soon it would be gone completely. And Karasuma was afraid to know what would happen then.

"YES!" Zaizen repeated loudly. "She may have died by my hand; but she died because of you. Just like you're mother."

The reaction was instant. Amon's eyes flashed a color that Karasuma had never seen before and never wanted to see again. Then a jet of black light surrounded him and all of the glass in the room was destroyed. The computer screen, windows and glass door all turned into sand and fell to the ground. Zaizen laughed and dropped the pure Orbo-Gun to the floor, while raising the black pistol to his own temple.

"YES AMON! I MAY DIE NOW; BUT YOU WILL LIVE AS A WITCH! YOU WILL LIVE AS THAT WHICH YOU HATE MOST!"

Before Karasuma could do anything; a gunshot was heard. The pop was followed by Zaizen's lifeless body falling onto the table and landing on the picture of his family. The gun he used to kill himself with fell to the ground near the table and landed next to the Orbo-Gun. Karasuma ignored the dead man and ran to Amon's side; but his scream sent her flying back.

Amon was not just screaming. It was no human scream. It was more of a primeval howl. A hideous sound more horrific than anything. It was like the sound of children being tortured and women being raped and men murdering each other. It was the sound of all the horrible things in this world combined together into one, eerie, horrible noise.

And when it was over Amon was sitting on the ground. His knees held him up while his hands held his head. Amon was shaking and the sound of evil had been replaced with the sight of a fearless man who was very afraid. Karasuma did not know what to do. She reached down for him, but he swatted her away.

"Miho." He breathed; his voice now like thunder and as evil as the sound he had screamed before. "Shoot me."

Karasuma's eyes widened. "I can't."  
  
Amon turned his head to her and she could see the horrors in his black eyes. He growled at her like a wild animal before his human voice spoke once again in the evil, booming tone. "Shoot me Miho."

Karasuma dropped her gun. "I can't Amon. I love you."

Amon growled once again and he rose to his feet. Karasuma had only now realized that he was several inches taller than he had been before and his clothes were fitting horrible. His muscles seemed to swell and his hair was blowing in an invisible wind. The creature that had once been Amon took a step towards her.

"I will kill you Miho." He growled. "And I don't want to. Now shoot me."

Karasuma responded by dropping her gun. "I can't Amon. I love you. I won't shoot you."

"Karasuma!" Amon – or what had once been Amon – said in a stern voice. "Do it now! Kill me!"

Karasuma's eyes were full of tears. She tucked a lock of red hair behind her ear. "Amon I don't even know who I am anymore. If I lose you, I'll lose any trace of myself. I can't shoot you."

Amon laughed. No; it was not Amon. Because Amon was gone now. The last trace of Amon's humanity and sanity had been lost and the only thing that was left was this horrific beast. It laughed and then it punched Karasuma in her stomach. Karasuma moaned and fell to her knees feeling like her ribs had just broken; which they probably had.

"For what it's worth." The creature that had once been Amon spoke in its evil hissing voice. "He probably loved you too. Or would have one day. Doesn't matter now."

Karasuma closed her eyes. The Amon-creature reached down for her.

And then the gunshot came. A scream of pure evil echoed in the night and the Amon-creature spun around. At the doorway a brown-haired man stood. He wore a white fur coat and hospital gown. One of his hands was clutching his gunshot wound, the other was holding the gun he had lent Touko earlier.

"Hey little brother." Nagira's voice was holding an obvious sadness. "You once asked me to make sure you never became a witch; and to kill you if you did."  
  
The Amon-Creature growled and stepped forward, but Nagira shot it twice more and it fell backwards.

"That's why you joined the STN-J, isn't it?" Nagira asked. "Partially to quench your lust for witch hunting; but mostly so that when you awoke they could kill you."

The Amon-Creature had lost its ability to speak words and now it only roared like a savage creature that was not meant to walk the world of human beings. Karasuma watched this whole thing unfold from her spot on the ground while Nagira's eyes began to water and his tears began to fall.

"I failed you brother. I'm sorry I couldn't keep you a seed. But I can still set your soul free. I never was much for religion Amon, but if there is a heaven; I hope you go there."

The creature roared again and Nagira shot it. The remaining bullets in the gun collided with the creature's head and it fell over dead on the floor. Nagira dropped the gun and clutched his own gunshot wound as he winced in pain for a moment before turning back to Karasuma.

"Sorry you had to see that." He said in all honesty. "But he wanted it this way."

Karasuma nodded. "I know he did. But it still hurts."

Nagira nodded as well. "We should leave before this factory collapses."

Karasuma stood up, winced at her ribs for a moment, and then lead Nagira to the escape tunnel. Then she looked down at Amon's body and walked over to it slowly. Nagira realized what she wanted to do and he helped her drag Amon's mutated body into the escape elevator with them before they pressed the button and left the factory behind them. Orbo, Zaizen, the Factory; they left it all behind.

**----**

The rain was coming in thicker now. Doujima and Sakaki stood to the left side of the roof, holding hands with one another and forgetting their earlier argument. Michael stood on the right, his sunglass coated irises staring at the woman he loved. Neither the spy, the hunter nor the hacker was moving. Instead they were watching Robin and Rica as their feet moved fast and their crafts faster.

Rica's jets of water were menacing. Flying at a speed fast enough to bend steel; they would be fatal if they hit Robin in her head. However her flames burnt with a raw fury that could be matched only by the fury of the last few days. The flames evaporated the water so that by the time it hit Robin it felt like the raindrops from above. Robin's flames would erupt under Rica's feet, or fly at his chest; but Rica's cooling mist would extinguish them just as fast.

"You've gotten stronger." Rica breathed as he launched three jets of water; one from the right, left and one in directly at her. Robin's eyes flashed and the jets of water were reduced to steam and water drops.

"Repent Rica." Robin replied. "God forgives all who ask for his pardon. Even one as evil as you."  
  
Rica laughed at her. "Tell you what pup; after I kill you, I'll repent."

Robin's flames jumped onto Rica's body; but his H2O washed it away just as quickly. The battle was going nowhere but that was all about to change. David pushed his dark sunglasses back up the bridge of his nose and Robin did the same with her eyeglasses. Her glasses were smudged from the rain but they still worked well enough to fry Rica.

"Now Robin." Rica laughed. "Don't forget we are in the rain; and that's my turf."

Michael didn't like the sound of that. A second later he let out a gasp of surprise as he felt a pinprick on his hand. He looked down to see blood forming. More and more pinpricks were appearing all over him and his clothes were being torn and small spots of blood was everywhere. He saw this same events happening to everyone else. Rica; of course ignored his skin being cut, but the others were looking around for the source of the trickery.

Then Michael realized it. He watched a raindrop fall on his hand and then he felt a needle prick.

"ROBIN!" Michael cried out. "It's the rain! The rain is sharp!"

Rica laughed like there was no tomorrow. He grinned as he saw holes appear in Robin's black skirts and shirt and watched with satisfaction as her pale skin began to become dotted with tiny blots of blood.

"It may not look like much, but I promise that after a few more seconds in this rain you'll all die." Rica explained as his pale lips tugged into a smug smile. "Sayonara."

_Maria wanted to name the child "hope"._

These words from Toudou's disc played back in Robin's head and she suddenly looked up. Blood was forming and her clothes and skin were both being torn apart. Still she did not fear anymore. While she had never met Maria, she now understood why the mother had loved her daughter. Robin's deep emerald orbs of sight filled with flames; and a second later a burst of flames engulfed Rica. Rica's water came to extinguish the flames; but he wasn't fast enough.

"BAD PUPPY! _VERY_ _BAD_ _PUPPY_!"

A second later the flames melted away. The pinpricks from the rain stopped hurting the skin; and every eye there went to the spot where Jackson David Rica had once stood. Now the only thing left was a burnt pair of dark sunglasses; which fell apart before their eyes into a pile of ash.

"Think he can recover from that one?" Doujima asked with an amused smile. Michael and Robin didn't answer her. Of course their arms had wrapped around each other despite the tiny sores from Rica's Rain and their lips had interlocked in a deep kiss that neither of them had any plans on ending anytime soon.

**----**

Master Yuji Kobari; owner and manager of _Harry's Place_ was sitting behind the bar when the door opened. It was very later and he was not expecting any company. However he had company none-the-less. Looking up with his dark eyes he found Robin and Michael at the doorway. Each of them had blood stains on their torn clothes but smiles on their tired faces nonetheless.

"Then it has happened?" Master Yuji asked.

"Yes." Robin replied simply as she collapsed onto a barstool. Michael sat beside her and tucked an arm around her shoulder comfortingly. Master Yuji's eyes flashed to both of them and he asked what had happened. And so Michael explained it.

"Doujima and Sakaki are at the hospital with Karasuma-san and Nagira now." Michael finished his explanation. "She called as soon as she and Nagira were out of the Factory."

Master Kobari nodded knowingly. "What are you're plans now?"

"Sleep." Robin responded as she leaned against Michael's shoulder. Michael smiled at the Master of _Harry's_ before he spoke next.

"We're going to have a funeral for Amon as soon as we can. It's the least we can do after everything that man did for us. After that; well I don't know."

"I do." A gruff voice spoke. Robin sat up and Michael turned his head. Chief Kosaka and Hattori sat at the booth at the back of the bar. Kosaka yawned and sat his coffee mug down before he stood up and walked over to them.

"Raven's Flat was destroyed. SOLOMON has already contacted me and asked me for the status of my team."  
  
Michael shook his head. "What did you tell them chief?"  
  
Kosaka gave Michael a genuine smile and his rough face melted into a rather charming emotion. "I told them I don't know. In a few hours I'll call and list you all as KIA."

Robin blinked at him. "KIA?"

"Killed-in-Action." Michael explained with a satisfied smile. "Thanks Chief."

Robin seemed confused by this, so she looked at her lover in his eyes for a moment. "Michael, why do we want to be listed as dead?"

Michael leaned in and kissed Robin's forehead briefly before breaking away. He had a cut on his lips and she one on her temple but that was a small price to pay for being together at last. Together without Rica or Richards or Zaizen in the way. "SOLOMON will think we're dead. Which means all we have to do is make up new names and then we can live life however we want it. Without being hunters."

Robin's understanding was instant and she smiled at him. Then she sighed and lowered her head. Michael's orange brow quirked and he gently placed a hand under he chin and lifted her eyes to his own.

"What?"  
  
Robin seemed both embarrassed and deeply troubled. "I just . . . remembered something you said to me."

Michael seemed to understand. He closed his eyes and smiled. "You mean when I asked you to marry me and live by the sea?" Robin's blush and her gasp seemed to be answer enough for the hacker, who tightened his grip around her shoulder.

"Robin, I may have been high on Morphine, but I meant it. I want to marry you and move to England."

Hattori, who was now standing next to the chief, let out a soft "aww" which caused the chief to hit him with his hat. Robin ignored it all as she stared up at Michael with wide eyes; no longer full of immense sadness but now deep, true love.

"When Michael?" She asked.

"Well, how does tomorrow morning sound to you?"

**----**

"Do you, Robin Sena, take Michael Lee to be your lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold, for richer and poorer, in sickness and in health, as long as you both shall live?"

Robin had been praying in the church by the park every morning since she arrived in Japan. Now she stood inside it. No longer did she wear the black nun's attire; but rather a white wedding dress. Michael stood beside her in a black tuxedo; while Doujima and Sakaki sat in the audience and looked on with smiles. Karasuma and Nagira were there as well; Nagira in a wheelchair and his white fur coat and Karasuma sitting down beside him.

"I do."

The Chief gave a large sniff from the audience. Hattori was next to him, of course, and offered him a tissue. "Are you okay Chief?"

"W-weddings always make me c-cry."

Doujima smiled and leaned against Haruto while she played with a strand as her long blonde hair. "Maybe we should do this sometime."  
Haruto smiled at her. "I'll stick with the sex if it's all the same."  
  
Doujima growled playfully and hit him on the arm, but an aged voice spoke from behind them.

"Good call sweet cheeks." Mrs. Kinoto, Doujima's old, perverted neighbor said as she reached down and pinched Sakaki's ass through the back of his chair. Sakaki screamed and fell forward; for a eighty year old woman's hand on his ass was enough to do that too him.

"Excuse me." Michael's annoyed voice called.

"But – old woman – hand – ass – pinching –"

There was a general exchange of laughter before the priest cleared his throat and they all calmed down again. Mrs. Kinoto winked at the priest from his pedestal and he could clearly be seen taking a step backwards, but continued with the service anyway.

"And do you, Michael Lee, take Robin Sena to be your lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold, for richer and poorer, in sickness and in health, as long as you both shall live?"

"I do." Michael said happily as he had ever been. Robin smiled back at him and their happiness was radiant even to make everyone in the church smile at them.

"Then by the power vested in me, I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride."

And kiss the bride he did. Michael and Robin's lips met with one another and stayed together for a few seconds while they absorbed all of the sweetness of love that lingered on each other. It was like an electrical charge radiating through their bodies and making them numb and hot at the same time. The pleasure of being in love is a magical and wonderful thing and these two were lucky enough to find it in each other.

"Woooo!" Doujima cheered as if she was at a football game. Sakaki whistled through his fingers and Robin laughed at him.

"If you need honeymoon advice." Mrs. Kinoto called. "Just ask!"

**----**

"And so we lay Amon to rest today. But we do not say our goodbyes. For all true believes know of the reunion to be had in the Kingdom of Heaven one day after the return of Christ the Lord."

The priest of Robin's usual church was standing, leading them all in prayer as the large black box was being lowered into the ground. Everyone was there and all of them dressed in black. Sakaki and Doujima stood side by side with tears in their eyes as Amon was laid down in the cemetery next to a grave marked _Rem Syunji_, who had been his mother. Nagira had traded his white fur coat for a black tuxedo and he sat in a wheelchair next to the grave. Karasuma wore a widow's veil over her face, although she had not been married to him. Michael also wore a black tuxedo. Robin was in her usual attire, but she did have one new addition to it – her wedding ring around her finger. The Chief, Hattori and Yuji Kobari all stood in the back as they paid their final respects.

"Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust. Father we pray that you guide your child back to the light. In Jesus name we pray, Amen."

"Amen" The onlookers echoed with the priest.

**----**

Zaizen had never mentioned it before his suicide, but he did have one secret. One saving grace. When he had been in New York two years ago for the birth of his first grandchild, he had taken the girl in every attention to kill her. However he had been unable to kill the innocent infant at that time.

Going through the hospital he discovered a doctor speaking with a nurse. Apparently a woman named Kimberly Avery had come in and had a baby; but that baby had died at birth. Her husband, a young cop named Kenny, had been desperate for a child. Zaizen had pulled Kenny aside and offered him the young infant as a adopting after feeding him a crock-and-bull story about the baby's mother dying at birth.

Kenny Avery and his wife had adopted the child of Amon and Touko. And now, as Kenny returned to New York after bidding farewell to Roger Williams in the Japanese International Airport, he was going home to see his wife and adopted daughter.

Kenny came through the door with a smile on his face. His daughter, a nearly-three-year-old bundle of energy gave a squeal and ran to him, hugging his leg as her black hair cascaded down her shoulders. His wife smiled and walked over to her husband, placing a kiss on his cheek.

"How did your business with Mr. Rica go, Ken?" She asked as she held him in a loving hug.

"Pretty good." Kenny lied. "But I don't think we'll see David again for a long, long time."

Kim smiled. "That's too bad. Would you like some dinner?"  
  
Kenny smiled back. "I'd love some, hon."

Later that day Kenny would wind up confessing to Kimberly that he had cheated on her five years ago. They would go to a couple's therapy and would remain married and slowly the trust would be rebuilt.

**----**

They planed to go to England next year. They couldn't afford a real honeymoon and still meet this plan; so they had rented a car and decided to go to Delaney Street for their honeymoon. Smiling as the green Cadillac they had rented arrived outside the small apartment building on Delaney Street, Michael opened the driver' door and quickly ran around to get his wife's door for her.

He paused. His wife. Four months ago he and Robin had only just kissed awkwardly and barley been able to admit their mutual feelings on one another. Now they were man and wife and returning to Michael's apartment to . . . Michael blushed at the very idea.

It wasn't like it was some big secret really; but he was only seventeen and it was kinda scary to think that he was on his honeymoon. His wedding night even! Everyone from Doujima (awkward) to Kosaka (slightly scary) to Mrs. Kinoto (horrific) had taken Michael aside and given him "advice". Doujima was actually somewhat helpful, although it was still awkward to have her say those . . . things to him. Kosaka had told him the exact opposite and he had decided to trust Yurika; which was a first. Mrs. Kinoto . . . well she had reminded him of some kind of porno movie with her advice that she "come over and supervise". Michael had denied her request and had then backed away slowly, as if she was a dangerous snake that may strike at any moment.

"Michael?" Robin's soft voice came floating back to him as she shook him lightly. "Are you alright?"

Michael blinked and shook his head (which was flushed very red) and looked down at his young wife. He nodded and gave a nervous laugh. "Yeah, sorry. Just spacing out."

Robin seemed to understand. In true honeymoon tradition Robin hoisted her off her feet and carried her across the threshold of the small apartment. She couldn't stifle her giggles and Michael found it amusing that she was giggling. A week ago she was so full of depression and that eerie kind of quietness that it made him sad. She seemed to always be sad because of her job and the tear it caused in her heart. Now she seemed to never be sad. Sure; they were both very upset about Amon's death, but Michael knew they couldn't dwell on their past if they wanted to make a bright new future.

"It isn't much." Michael mumbled as he continued to carry his wedding-dress clad beauty down to the very bedroom where he had proposed to her while being high on the morphine. He set Robin down and she looked up at him. Both of them seemed to be much redder than they had been in the car. Michael moved onto the bed beside her.

"Michael?"

"Yes, Robin?"

"I love you."

Michael smiled at her. "I love you too."

**The End**

**----**

**Epilogue**

(Because I know you're dying to know)

Ten Years Later . . .

**Karasuma, Miho**

**Syunji, Nagira**

Live in Tokyo still. After Amon's death, Karasuma was in therapy for a few months and put a great deal of emotional support in Nagira Syunji. They have been married for three years and have one child, named Amon Jr.

**Doujima, Yurika**

**Sakaki, Haruto**

Currently live in Los Angeles. They were married a year after the collapse of the factory and had one child together, divorced a year later, and remarried the year after that. They have had two more children since, two girls to go with the oldest boy, and their names are Michael, Lily and Rose.

**Shintarou, Kosaka  
Shouhei, Hattori**

Quit their jobs at the STN-J and moved to Massachusetts, where they got married a year after the collapse of the factory. (C'mon, admit it, you _know_ they're not just friends.)

And last but not least . . .

**Shihara, Kinoto**

Is in the Guinness book of world records as the oldest living prostitute. Now at the age of Ninety-Two, and still working it.

(LOL!)

Ok, enough bad jokes . . .

**Sena/Lee, Robin  
Lee, Michael**

Changed their last named to "Campbell" in order to avoid SOLOMON's witch database. They did get married one day after the collapse of the factory at the ages of Seventeen and Fifteen. They moved to England a year later and live in a small flat by the sea to this day. They have two children, a boy named Troy and a young girl named Hope. To this day they stay in touch with Doujima, Sakaki, Karasuma, Nagira, the Chief, Master Kobari and Hattori. Once a year, if possible, the entire group meets in Japan at _Harry's Place_ for dinner. They meet on the anniversary of the Factory's Collapse and always bring their children. As for Robin's children; the children of the Eve of Witches, and whether or not Maria's hope was true . . . well that's another story.

**-------------------**

**-Listening to Jimmy Buffett and Kenny Chesney's _License to Chill_-**

THERE YOU ARE FOLKS!  
  
Did you enjoy it? Did you have fun? Happy Fourth of July!

Sayonara


End file.
